Invasion of Space
by FadedNobody
Summary: It all started with fights and some detentions, leading Zim to realize he was broken and Dib to see that this was his last chance to save Earth. Only to find that nothing was going to turn out as they planned, because what began in skool would end with an invasion of space. /starting with T eventual M alteration. Probable ZADR.
1. Detention!

The school bell rang with a wild shrill noise, signalling that the childrens day of class was nearing its end. Just this last class, homeroom, was left to sit through. This was all the students needed to finish before they could go back home to their pathetic homes and do some pathetic things to make their existence seem somewhat worth it. Mrs. Bitters hardly wanted to speak to the foul ingrates but was required to and droned on about how school was important and that without good grades and will to survive, they would be more doomed than they already were. It was stuffy and heated in the room, opening the windows was forbidden as it was excruciatingly hot outside. There was probably going to be some need for fundraising in order to get the air conditioning factored back into the schools budget. A single small fan stood atop Mrs. Bitters desk and whined as it tried in vain to cool the air.

Dib was paying no attention as his teacher droned about doom and the sun exploding with heat. Instead his little human fingers were furiously scribbling something on a sheet of paper, before violently scrumpling the page and then chucking it across the room. The ball was not aerodynamic but succeeded in its task of pelting a certain invader in the head knocking his wig slightly askew. Growling Zim immediately righted the itchy bit of disguise and stood, hopping to stand on his wobbly desk.

"FILTHY Dib-beast! You dare invoke the wrath of ZIM?!" Zim screeched loudly interrupting Mr.s Bitters droning about the suns plans to fry all humans to their doomy deaths. He flung an arm and claw to point at Dib, the extremity shaking with anger, as if making sure that everyone in the room would know exactly who was the cause of the soon to be fight. However Mrs. Bitters was having none of this and grit her teeth as she hissed in anger. These two students were constantly antagonizing each other, having moved the two of them to opposite sides of the front row of desks she acted without mercy nor patience.

"SILENCE you wretched creatures!" Mrs. Bitters scowled as she floated Zim and glared at him daring him to make another sound. "I don't want to deal with ANY of you foul snot children. Much less you two dimwitted twerps and according to the laws of this cursed skool if you continue with these outbursts I would me more than happy to sentence you two to detention."

At this Dib snickered, having thought his plan to ruin Zims day was working perfectly. Oooh how it was working. This small piece of triumph did not go unnoticed and immediately Mrs. Bitters announced her wrath. "DETENTION Both of you! One week or until I feel as though you two have lessened your irritating worthless noises."

"What?!" Dib exclaimed. "I didn't even say anything!"

"Two Weeks!"

"AHAHAHA! Yesss! A worthy punishment of the Dib-stink!" A maniacal expression was fixed on the aliens face before Mrs. Bitters affirmed it was a dual punishment, putting both Dib and Zims name up on the board. There were usually at least two names on the chalk board and now the had filled up the roster enticing a sight of relief from some of the minor issue students. Ever reluctantly the two sat silently through the rest of class. Now it was Zim's turn to scribble on the human write sheets and develop a new plan of domination. Oooh how the domination would… dominate. Zim sneered at Dib from across the room chuckling evilly. Dib retaliated with a strained expression conveying nothing but retained anger, wanting nothing more than to fight the Irken, fists clenching with the itch to pummel Zims face.

* * *

Soon enough the bell rang and Mrs. Bitters exclaimed her relief that the smelly creatures she was meant to babysit were finally leaving to become someone elses problem. The students flooded out of the classroom, obviously took excited about whatever they were doing after school to care about the hateful things their teacher was muttering at them. As the last one left she turned to Dib and Zim, the green boy was trying to nonchalantly escape his punishment, having the gall to whistle as he walked towards the door. Swiftly hovering over to the exit she blocked the little twats escape, feet touching down with a near mechanical sound and nearly growled at him, an expression on her face that clearly stated he wouldn't be leaving any time soon. Zim scuttled back to his desk and flopped onto the seat heavily, as if the task was more tiring than it needed to be.

Mrs. Bitters narrowed her eyes and seeped hatred for her remaining students from her very soul. "You two will remain here for the next hour. The school counselor will be here to watch you and deal with your insufferable child-stench." And with that she left, slamming the door behind her.

Leaving the two enemies in the same room alone.

It didn't take a second for the door to shut and the two were already threatening each others lives. Knowing they couldn't commence their fighting until the days detention was over they settled for a battle of the words, lest they break something and their detention become extended.

"You inferior worm-beast!" Zim screeched, arm shaking as he shook his fist with all his rage at Dib. "You have hindered Zims plans for the last time!"

Dib glared at the green space boy and yelled back at him "Your plan was stupid before it even started! All it takes is one move and I will have protected all of humanity from your stupid little plan!"

"LIES! Zims plans are AMAZING! Unstoppable at that!" Zim grinned evilly eyes narrowing as he sized Dib up half wondering if Dib could even comprehend the levels his world domination would soar to, "Ooooh how amazing Zims plan is."

"Your plan is dookie!"

"Is NOT!"

"Is too! I bet it will screw itself up too! And it wont work! I wouldn't even have to do anything to stop it from backfiring!" Dib laughed, thinking back to their previous classroom pet Peepee the hamster.

Zim was ready to retort when their observer of punishment strode through the door. The counselor was worse for wear at first sight, obviously he hadn't wanted to be there and was itching to go home just as much as the two students in detention wanted to throttle eachother. He was a new counselor, as the past several had either up and quit, disappeared or died. Apparently the school was running out of options and this blob of human was the best they could come up with.

"Urghm I'm Mr. Wesle and due to your teacher Mrs. Bitters request for someone to watch you, I will be making sure you two behave for the duration of detention." The smelly human now known as Mr. Wesle grumbled, obviously hating his job and its unwanted extensions. Zim watched in extreme dislike as the human in charge wiped at a food crusted mustache and then wiped whatever it was onto its already stained collared shirt.

"You will, urhhh, be doing some writing." Mr. Wesle sloshed over to the white board and after locating a stick of chalk, squeakily wrote out a sentence. "Write this 500 times or until four thirty hits. Mrs. Bitters wants the papers and-" The counselor checked the note he'd been given. "And expects you to realize that you are doomed for the rest of the school year." The counselor then shrugged and sat heavily in the chair behind the desk.

Unable to speak the two merely glared at each other, dibs face more of a sneer than anything. 'VICTORY!' He chanted in his head, having stalled the aliens plans at least for a day, thus giving him more time to spy on Zim's base and figure out what his next plan was. The two began a race to see who could finish the sentence writing first. Zims claws wrapped precisely around the writing utensil as he furiously scribbled out the sentence. "I will not start fights with other students in class. I will not start fights…" Dib whispered to himself as he wrote.

An alarm sounded suddenly from the desk and Mr. Wesle snorted, startled awake. Grappling for his phone he'd set on the desk he turned off the little buzzer. "Go home, its four thirty now. Give me those papers." The counselor stood as the two packed their things for leaving, and snatched up the pages from their desks. He didn't give a shit about how much they wrote and set the papers on Mrs. Bitters desk before grabbing what little he'd brought in and left the two students to their misery.

"I wrote more than you Zim." Dib grinned wanting to get a rise out of the Irken.

Zim merely sneered back, "Oh poor Dib-Beast, you must know that your insignificant writing abilities are no match for the mighty ZIM!" Zim then strode out, wanting to leave school grounds so he could pummel the stupid human worm.

Dib seemed to be just as eager to leave and ran out to stand in front of Zim. "I'll catch you one day Zim, and then you'll be an exclusive episode on Mysterious Mysteries! Then the world will be able to see what you really are!" Dib pulled something out of his pocket and chucked it at Zim before darting down the hall to the outside.

Zim had stopped to glare at Dib, chin jutting out in displeasure before a thing was tossed at his face. Screaming briefly he slapped the crumpled paper away. Staring at it as it hit the ground he picked it up and stared at the drawing on it. It was of the alien strapped to an autopsy table being sliced open whilst Dib stood over him holding some weird organ that zim knew he didn't have. Was the Dib-Beast going to replace his organs?! Zim screamed again and then raced after dib now hellbent on beating the stupid worm baby to death.

The air was hot and dry outside, nearly immediately sapping Dib of moisture. The sun was frying the earth and across the school grounds he saw a few students huddled under a tree for shade. They were part of some afterschool activity and were still waiting to be picked up it seemed. Moments later Zim burst through the doors.

"Ahahahaha! Run little human! You will feel the wrath of- AH Why is it so cursedly hot on this planet?!" Zims tone of voice altered halfway through his rant as the sun's heat penetrated his uniform. The pink material was designed to keep their cool bodies warm, but with the suns additional heat it was too much and made Zim sweat. Dib was faring no better but lunged at Zim in his momentary weakness.

Zim screeched and the two tussled for a bit, dibs glasses miraculously not breaking during the scuffle. A janitor came by and shook his head at the two. "Go home! Or at least somewhere else!" The custodian then slammed the door shut to keep the heat out of the stuffy building.

Dib looked up, distracted by his fellow humans words and zim took the opportunity to punch Dib in the face, smashing his glasses just a bit. "AGH! Zim!" Temporarily blinded Zim shoved the human away and made towards the steps to leave. Dib wasted no time and firmly planted his foot in Zims back, just under his PAK and sent him flying down the six steps. Zim yelled as he hit the ground but stood quickly, righting his wig, however one of his contacts had been damaged and he was forced to keep one eye shut to prevent his disguise from falling apart.

"Curse you human worm baby! Just wait until I get my plans in motion! Nothing will stop me!" He rubbed at his eye, the lens still trapped under his eyelid. He grumbled backing away from Dib as the human made an advance.

"Haha! I'll stop you every time Zim!" Dib nearly sang the words and lunged the little green alien. Zim yelled and dodged before taking off, it was blisteringly hot but Zim's body would handle it well, he needed to get home before Dib destroyed his disguise entirely. And mid-evening he would need to for all those gross humans milling around.

Dib laughed as Zim ran off, "VICTORY FOR EARTH!" His fists raised high in the air like some sort of weird victory pose. The custodian popped his head back out at the sound of Dibs yelling.

"GO HOME!" He then shut the door and resumed mopping up some scuffs and dropped homework. "Jeez whats wrong with that kid.."

* * *

It has been a long time since I have visited this site and I do apologize for never wanting to ever update those previous stories on my accuont. However this particular plot line came to mind and is in the process of planning developing and distributing. If anyone would like to beta my work that would be wonderful. If there are any Invader Zim fans still around that is.  
There are some factors that have been based on some of the fics I have read and agree with however I will vow to keep this as close to in character as possible. Beware, this one should be a fun one if I should ever finish it. If you are a writer of Invader Zim fics and see something you may have written about all credit is yours. I may have simply amplified it or twisted the idea to my thought process.

Updates Wednesdays R&R

-FN


	2. Investigate!

The first week of detentions went along similarly. Continuing to write sentences, do homework or in a single instance having to help the custodian clean the school. They'd only been made to do that once before the two started bickering and escalated into a fight. They'd done nothing but make a bigger mess for the custodian whom refused to baby sit the two 'demon' children for their detention any longer.

Zim however hindered by these 'detentions', had been working slowly but surely on his next attempt at taking over the planet. Dib knew this and was plotting to spy on the alien tonight. The human was learning more and more about the Irken species and discovered that every few nights they would 'sleep' for some odd amount of hours. Having found this out after Dib had snuck into the base to find Zim just waking up from said nap, though the alien insisted he wasn't sleeping and that his superior specie did not require such time wasting activities. By his calculations Zim would be sleeping tonight, probably right before he launched his next plans.

The lunch bell rang and the kids poured out of the classroom to stuff themselves with unsanitary goop from the cafeteria. Zim stood as most of the pig-beasts departed their class and began his way out to the horrid cafeteria. Dib followed and after Zim had sat down at an empty table, closed in on the weirdo.

"I know you're up to something."

Zim had to keep his antennae from springing up in surprise. No.. shock. An invader was never surprised, only shocked. "HNNN! What sort of up are you talking about Dib-worm?" Zim grinned at him. "I am a completely normal worm-baby and just want to eat my delicious human-FIIILTH!" He screeched the last word and then looked around. A few kids from their class looked at the two, making zim feel uncomfortable.

"C'mon you weirdo just let the green freak eat his lunch." A boy said, Torque probably.

"Yeah. Why you gotta be so weird dib?" Another student stood up for Zim and it made the alien sneer at Dib.

"Yes Dib. Why must you be weird? Everyone knows that I am just a normal hyuman." Zims eyes narrowed triumphantly as Dib spluttered and stuttered.

"B-But he! I know its crazy but-!" Dib was cut off as the custodian made his way through the cafeteria, slinking along the walls to keep distance from himself and these insane creepy children. The custodian spotted Dib being crazy and glared at him. "Go eat your lunch!"

Dib sighed and slunk back to his spot across from his sister Gaz, whilst Zim analyzed his food in peace. "I know he's got some evil plan Gaz. Maybe something bigger than normal too!" His eyes glanced around shiftily while Gaz merely groaned and tried to block out her siblings weird paranoia rant.

Mr. Wesle Groaned, suddenly waking up from his napping, the two boys were silently sitting a their desks and doing their homework obediently. He eyed the two suspiciously. Notorious for loud outbursts, violent tendancies towards one another, hateful glares at the very least. His bloodshot eyes widened. Could it be? They were getting along? He didn't want to get his hopes up and grunted, gaining their attention.

"Urhnn Since you two seem to be behaving…" He cleared his throat and licked his lips, "I will let you go early.. no staying on school grounds. Just leave." He added in, as he had been receiving complaints from the custodian about their after detention fights on the playgrounds.

Dib grinned and collected his things, not daring to say anything to Zim for fear of their early release being reconsidered and rescinded. Zim smiled evilly at dib and did the same, the two not saying a word as they left the room. Dib stopped momentarily at his locker to switch out his books, his homework now done he didn't need to schlepp it home and back. Slamming his locker shut in a hurried motion he looked down the hall. Zim was nowhere to be seen. Cursing quietly Dib hurried down the halls to the outside and headed home, the heat had lessened though it was still very warm, it was foretold to rain this coming week though so maybe he would have more opportunities to spy on zim soon.

* * *

Gloved claws tapped hurriedly at an irken keyboard, symbols flashing with a loading bar in the corner. Soon it would be set in motion, however for now he still had to wait.

"GIR!" Zim yelled in his regular method of speaking. Said robot fell from the ceiling where he had been having a teaparty with some rats and a pink rubber piggy in the rafters of cords and wires. He was still holding a plastic tea cup which was full of what appeared to be a mixture of dirt and maple syrup, half of which splashed out and onto the floor.

"Aaaaww.. my tea.." Was all Gir said, not really acknowledging his master and not really doing much to distract himself from whatever his master might be wishing.

"Prepare the- What is that" Zim stared at the now glop of stuff on his floor., it jiggled a little as Gir poked it and then picked it up to put it back in his cup to drink.

"TEA!" The insane little robot shouted and started slurping obnoxiously.

Zim shuddered a little, disliking the gross noises his robot was making. "Anyways… Gir I require you to prepare our defenses. I know Dib will be snooping and I can't have this project ruined before it can even begin!" Claws rubbed together excitedly and his antennae wiggled, an evil chuckle leaving his zipper tooth mouth. "And then this world will be MINE!"

Zim strode over to his experiment and Gir followed him, still not processing what was happening or what he had been told to do. Tapping the glass of a large green holding tank Zim grinned. "These humans and their water… ooooh how it burns me. But soon they will feel exactly the same as Zim does." There were four of these large tubes and after checking the dials on each one Zim nodded triumphantly. "NOOOOW! It is food time." Smiling happily to himself he marched over to his elevator. "Computer! Take me to the kitchen! I wish to feed!"

The computer said nothing and merely rocketed Zim up to the kitchen. Obviously the computer was having some malfunctions or it was mad at Zim. The elevator shot up far too quickly and upon reaching the kitchen level Zim was sent sailing out of the trashcan and into the ceiling. He fell back down to the kitchen floor with an 'oof.'

"Ugh for the love of Irk I really need to fix my equipment." Zim rubbed his head and pulled something out of the fridge. There were two shelves, one for Zims food and another for Gir's. Zims of course was the upper level. It was some sort of purple mash and after being heated Zim sat down at his table with this weeks newspaper and began eating.

Gir followed soon after and at the sight of his master eating declared he would make something to eat as well. A loud clattering and banging signaled the beginning and after some wild noises Gir came from the kitchen to sit with his master. Zim rolled his red eyes at the sight of Gir's favorite food: Waffles. It was always morning meal time with this machine.

"Want some?" Gir asked. Knowing he couldn't say no Zim sighed and took two with his fork. Whatever, that mush wasn't very good anyways. Quickly eating the waffles much to Girs delight Zim growled as it darkened outside, his PAKs main light blinking.

"GIR! Do not forget! Protect the house! I will be busy tonight and cannot be disturbed by any INTRUDERS!" Zim put emphasis on the intruder part. It seemed to trigger some sort of SIR capabilities in him. He grinned as Girs eyes and blue accents lit up a vibrant red and his little hand saluted his master.

"Yes My Lord!" Gir stood at attention and scanned around the house. It was safe. Immediately after he resumed a cool blue and squee'd "Its almost time for the scary monkey show!" With that the little robot took off and plopped himself onto the couch channel surfing till he hit the right channel.

Zim paid no mind and after a good stretch hopped back into the trashcan. "Computer! Take me to my space!" The computer did so once again without retort and zipped him just as quickly down to a quiet little room. Zim was able to catch himself this time and sighed, antennae assuming a relaxed pose. The room itself was dark in color, deep magenta and black draped the walls. In the middle there was a sort of curved bed, made just so for an Irkens PAK to be accommodated. Several wires and such were to one side and Zim couldn't help but crawl into the small comfortable area. The PAK attracted said wires, each hooking up to a specific slot and the incessant flashing of the PAKs main light ceased to a faint glow. Near immediately Zims body shut down, strewn lazily across the 'bed.'

* * *

Dib Had wasted no time in preparing the infiltration. The moment he'd got home his father was unsurprisingly not there. Gaz was sat on the couch playing her game slave and ignoring the world. Dib couldn't blame her really, he ignored everything by obsessing over the paranormal and his main obsession of ousting Zim as an alien kept him just as occupied as Gaz was with her games. They were very similar in that respect.

Donning his invisibility ninja suit and stuffing a camera in his pocket was only the beginning. Extra traction shoes that were labeled by a paranormal magazine as being untraceable came next, followed by some throwing stars and his favorite weapon: a lazer gub he'd stolen from Zim in one of their scuffles. No number on how many shots it had left so as a back up he slid a short sword he'd bought online to his back as well as a regular pair of taser hand cuffs, since those paranormal cuffs didn't work. Dib glanced outside, dusk was falling and it would be a great deal cooler with all this black clothing on now. Making sure to bring his old flip phone just in case he needed to call Gaz he took off without a word to his sister.

His shoes were remarkably silent as he crossed streets and blocks to get to zims house. Edging up along the fence that lined zims property he peeked through a hole in the wood. The lights were off but the light of the tv stood out, giving the windows a faint colorful glow that altered in brightness as the characters moved across the screen and the scenes changed. He tested the security system, picking up a rock and tossing it down the walk way. A gnome turned slowly and zapped it, the rock now nothing more than a black smudge.

The door to the front opened all of a sudden and Gir dressed up as a normal-earth-dog darted outside. "Nachoooos! I need you!" The robot cared not for shutting the door and after a moment was gone out and around the corner.

There was a small convenience store that sold nachos so it wouldn't be long before Gir came back. Dib hurriedly activated his invisibility suit, it had been damaged last time he was here to sneak in, Gir had sensed him and after freaking out had thrown a soda on him. Dib could only hope that his repairs had been enough to keep him hidden for a while. Sneaking inside was of no big deal, the doors and windows were open and with his invisibility he was nearly undetectable.

Immediately Dib set to searching the area. Waffles sat uneaten on the table, an empty plate with purple residue caught his attention and Dib quickly pulled out a q-tip to take a sample. Popping the newly acquired sample into a tube he tucked it into his suit. Now glancing around Dib couldn't help but need to figure out what the aliens new plan was and where Zim might be hiding. He had made the trip once before, into the aliens labs and after fiddling with the kitchen toilet flushed himself down. The toilet tube converted into a shining cylindrical tube and Dib was taken down. Shockingly Dib hadn't been discovered yet. Probably because he was just so good at spying, yeah that was definitely it.

As the elevator door opened Dib stepped out and slunk along the walls. It took only a few seconds to find the new 'plan' as it was nearly the center of attention. Several large tubes of what appeared to be water were just sitting there. Nothing was floating inside them, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Just some blue water. Dib stared, confuddled. Maybe Zim was just trying to perfect his waterproofing? With summer coming maybe he would be inclined to swim and this was how he was going to battle it. Never one to leave something with a simple conclusion Dib stared at the machine, everything was in irken so there was little use pushing buttons. Glancing around he wondered how he might get a sample of the fluids inside one of the containers. Looking around he spotted what appeared to be a high-tech microscope and under it lied several petree dishes. Shrugging he took several of them and upon inspection of the work bench found exactly what he had been searching for. A vial of liquid.

Dib hurriedly tucked these things into his invisible pockets and immediately made to leave. He was already pushing his luck. So it was made apparent as he was unable to figure out an exit. Usually by now he had been discovered and was thrown out of the base by the computer. Nearly groaning in aggravation at his current trapped-ness Dib began wandering the base, searching for another possible escape route. So far so good, no alarms but also no viable leave routes. Cursing under his breath Dib spotted a door. An elevator perhaps? Walking up to it he gently prodded the door and the machinery moved it out of place. Stepping through dib found it to be very dark. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he spotted Zim.

The alien was fast asleep. Or whatever state he was in, it definitely looked like Zim had passed out, his libs strewn about and nothing but a blanket covering his body. Wires and cords were hooked up to Zims… backpack thing, but otherwise the slow rise and fall of his green chest were the only signs of life. Dib couldn't help himself, now overwhelmed by pure curiosity. He'd never be able to get this close to Zim again. Stepping closer Dib leaned over Zim, studying the foreign body. Two fingers and a thumb, lanky arms and legs, though Dib knew they held more strength than they looked. Thin torso and as Dibs eyes skipped over to Zims feet he grinned, seeing that the irken had only two toes to a foot and were very similar to his fingers in terms of nail growth.

Amber eyes snapped back up to Zims face, examining closer. Whilst Zim did not have a nose there were two thin slits that seemed to resemble breathing orifices but they blended in extremely well. Zims antennae twitched, their velvety appearance making Dib want to lean in closer, touch them. They looked extremely soft, Much like a deer's antlers before the fuzz was scraped off in spring, but it was so short and fine.

Suddenly the cords and wires attached to Zims pack retreated and Dibs investigation was halted. Heart hammering he quickly tried to leave, touching what he thought was the door he was shocked to see the elevator. Throwing himself inside he waited for the thing to move. Only it didn't. He could hear Zim stirring and eventually standing. Shuffling about was made and then the elevator was opened once more. Not daring to breathe Dib flattened himself against the elevator wall. He had evidence of the plan, he had to get home and figure out what it was before it was begun. Zim yawned and stretched his arms and antennae, grumbling tiredly to himself about waffles. As the elevator reached the kitchen the two were launched out into the living room. Apparently the computer wasn't happy about something still.

"Aaah!" Dib yelped as he hit the floor, his invisibility suit glitching.

Zim immediately perked to attention having spotted the glimpse of Dib in his house, "AHH?! GIR! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Zim immediately accused the little bot. "I told you to protect the house!" The robot was peacefully perched on the couch, the front door still wide open from his nacho run the night before. "…Oh yeah." Was all Gir said before resuming eating tacos and nachos and other such similar foods.

"HAHA Zim! I have everything I need to know about your stupid plan!" Dib grinned and immediately took off for the door. Zim seeing this happen grabbed a laser pistol from his PAK and shot at Dib. The first shot missed and the second jammed the weapon. Dib yelled as he was shot in the leg but continued his limping sprint home. Now all he had to do was figure out what was happening to the water n Zims lab.

Zim couldn't take it, he screeched and threw things. Of all the times Gir didn't listen to him it had to be then? He had been absolutely vulnerable! The thought of his PAK reminded Zim of the updates he had just undergone and stormed over to the door slamming it shut along with all of the windows. Not bothering with reprimanding Gir, Zim figured he would set up a punishment later for the little SIR unit. For now he had to get his plan moving and run a diagnostic on his PAK.

* * *

Too good to quit, I'm very into writing this at the moment. Sorry there wasn't much dialogue, too much sneaking and planning. Still looking for a beta.

May update again this week. R&R

-FN


	3. Intercept!

"Stupid Gir, Stupid Dib... stupid! Grraahhh!" Zim made a frustrated noise and stormed into the kitchen. He couldn't let anything alone, lest something not go as needed. Zim cursed and kicked the trashcan before hopping into it. Immediately the white walls of the elevator surrounded him. "Computer! Take me to-AH!" The computer predicted his needs and shot him down to the lab, the irken now launching out of the doors and into his lab space.

Zim growled and turned to face his computer. "Are you BROKEN or something? Irk knows you could have KILLED your master!"

"…" The computer stayed quiet, giving a small sigh. Zim took that as a moment of understanding and continued with his tasks.

"Run a diagnostic on my PAK, I want to see what was updated and the efficiency of it now." Zim felt a little woozy as the PAK separated itself from his body. Cords and wiring plugged itself into the PAK and Zim began gathering tools that might be needed for whatever tweaks were needed. It was odd, Zim thought, that even with updates and file transfers that his PAK still needed some manual fixing. Antennae wiggled with anger, it was probably due to fighting with the stupid dib human, all the constant blows and such were bound to be damaging its inner workings.

"Scan Complete." The computer announced.

"Good, what is the efficiency at?" Zims antennae perked with curiosity and then flattened as the computer replied.

"63% Weaponry is at 44% and life support is at 71%"

"Hmm how can this be? The update should have boosted this!" Zim growled and pushed a button, it scanned his touch briefly and then popped open. An odd smell came from one portion. Spying a fried chip zim extracted it carefully. He placed it into a machine and then began the fixing, his antennae twitching as he worked.

A small noise of shock came from him as he fixed the chip, a fuse in it had broken, probably a surge from the update. He carefully removed it and placed a better fuse in its place. His brain spun for a second as he stared at the chips inner workings.

"No…. This chip limits the ALMIGHTY ZIMS HEIGHT?!" He screeched and immediately set to re-routing the circuits. "Oh by the Tallests word I will grow.." His brain scratched as he thought back to when he was assigned his tasks in Impending Doom 1. The others had been growing yet he had not. It wasn't recorded the stages or cycles of growth in Irkens. Humans seemed to 'spurt' growth as they reached their teen years before stopping all together. Zim grit his scissor teeth, Determined now to grow taller than any other invader.

"Liquid alteration Complete." The computer beeped and then resumed its silence. Zim cursed to himself, The chip looked to be in good shape now, hopefully his modifications would allow him to grow now. His antenna twitched and he looked up a grin spreading across his face.

"This should be good enough for now," He grumbled to himself, plugging the chip back in with utmost care before the PAK reattached to his spine, the other cords and wires zipping away back to some dark place in his lab. Immediately he felt different, but he couldn't decide if it was a good feeling or a bad one. Zim shrugged it off and hurried over to the water tubes, eager to test it out and unleash it to the pitiful earth planet.

* * *

Dib had run home as fast as he could, the shot had grazed his leg and damaged his invisibility further. He probably wouldn't be able to fix the suit this time. However these thoughts were on the furthest back burner his mind contained, for now he was running out of time to save the earth. What was up with the water?

It was around 3 am when Dib rushed inside his home. Gaz was asleep in her room probably and his father was probably still at his lab, no real answer though unless Dr. membrane himself decided to show up randomly. Dib shut and locked the door quietly, suddenly thankful that his shoes were untraceable as they made no noise as he ran down the stairs to the basement.

A wall to wall lab welcomed him, it had been his fathers but as the technology became outdated Dr. Membrane had simply left it there hoping his son would dabble in the real science, instead the parent moved to a bigger and better base. Immediately setting to work dib pulled out his evidence. Setting up a notepad he made a list of the things he had found and then began outlining the tests he would perform on each one.

The microscope slides were placed next to the microscope and the water was distributed to an analyzer, a petree dish and with some saved for later, a quick human test. Simple enough. The analyzer would take a few minutes and after plucking a hair from his head Dib dropped it into the human test portion of the water. His eyes widened as the hair immediately fizzed and smoked before disappearing into nothing.

"He's turned the water to acid?" Dib grit his teeth and immediately checked the microscope, one slide was water, clean and regular, the drop would be fine to drink. Flipping another slide into place he spotted it. There was a new molecule that had bonded with the regular H2O. Cursing he immediately set to figuring what had happened.

Quickly performing some tests as the analyzer blinked that the water was toxic Dib quickly eradicated the problem. If Zim had added an acidic natured molecule then the solution would be to match the acid with an equally powerful base. Dib chuckled to himself as he devised his remedy and mixed a drop of it with a drop of the untouched water sample. He sent it through the analyzer and grinned as it blinked that the water was now safe for human consumption. More slides were made and he couldn't help but pat himself on the back. The acid had been entirely counterattacked by the base and the two things destroyed each other, now nothing but the H2O remained.

Congratulating himself dib set his solution into another machine, where it multiplied the amount and concentrated it. Dib didn't have space for all those tubes of liquid and with a concentrated formula it wouldn't take much to completely reverse the effects of Zims tampering.

"Victory for Earth." Dib yawned a fist pumping tiredly. He would save the world soon but for now it was bed time.

Daylight came too early for earths sole protector. Having been up only a few hours prior the sound of his alarm blaring was none too welcome. "Grhhh Stupid Zim.." Dib grumbled before rolling out of bed. His feet touched the floor and his mind suddenly clicked back to functioning. "ZIM! Oh crap that's right!" Hurriedly getting dressed Dib rushed to the bathroom, brushing his teeth and such activities before running through the house to the basement. There was a large container filled with the solution meant to neutralize zims plan, grabbing the odd contraption he had made during the 5th grade waterbaloon fight he loaded the solution into it and hurriedly brought it upstairs.

"Dib! Wonderful!" A floating screen suddenly sprung from the kitchen. Mebrane peered down at his poor insane son and decided not to ask what he was doing with their water dispensing jug again. "I will be very busy this afternoon so I'm afraid we will have to put off our annual family movie night until next week. Do tell your sister Gaz before she leaves for school!" An explosion sounded from behind Membrane and with a quick 'gotta go' the screen went blank and zipped off to wherever it charged itself.

Groaning Dib ignored his fathers request and after grabbing some toast headed over to Zims house. It was Saturday, there was no school.

Zim on the other hand had been waiting for the loading bar to complete, and once it had cackled in his insane way. "YES! Soon this pitiful rock will be MINE!"

Gloved claws tapped away at the keyboard before the computer blipped a small message. Zim ignored it and continued with his keyboard work. If he'd cared to look closer he would se the computer sarcastically telling him of an intruder. The clank of Gir falling out of the elevator wasn't enough to deter his attention. Still not a care for the distractions. Even as dib nearly waltzed up to the water tanks and began neutralizing their affects. He pushed some buttons and a pump like attachment popped out. He shrugged and plugged his container into it. Zim Still wasn't paying a slight bit of attention.

Gir however had to be the one to break the silence. "Eeeehehehee! Your head is HUUUUGE!" The small dog dressed robot was perched atop the humans cranium and messing with Dibs scythe hair spike.

Zim wanted to screech and blast dib into a pile of stupid human goo. "How have you been getting past my defenses!" The alien growled, antennae stiff with anger, bright red eyes twitched as he saw that Dibw as already foiling his plans. Not anymore though, Zim sneered at Dib and yelled at his computer. "Computer! Secure the base! Block all exits! Do not let the Dib-human escape!"

"Suuure.." Zims antennae twitched, the first time the machine had spoken in days it seemed, though it was no less sarcastic than it had been before it decided to give Zim the silent treatment. Metal panels slid over the windows and the locking sounds were audible.

Dib swallowed and unhooked himself from the tank. It was nearly empty now and the waters acidic effects had been neutralized. "I told you your plan was dookie!" Dib grinned as he saw this riled up his alien nemesis. "It didn't even take me all night to find the solution!"

"Silence pig-beast! You know nothing of Zims plans!" Zim sneered though his antennae lowered as he realized he'd been careless in letting his plans go awry. No matter, now he had Dib trapped. Zim was still rather small, having not grown much since his alteration of his PAKs inner workings. Dib was a growing human and was past five foot tall, while Zim was nearly the same height as he had been when he had arrived on earth. The planets lighter gravity having only sprouted Zim a mere 20 ligas, the other humans blamed his growth spurt for not having hit yet. Spider-legs peeked from his PAK and then extended to lift Zim quickly into the air. However small Zim grinned cockily and immediately rushed at Dib, wanting nothing more than to smash the humans body into goo.

Dib countered and dodged the sharp PAK legs, instead vying to grab Zim. Zim screeched at being touched and small sharp though gloved claws raked against Dibs arms. Kicking and punching the two rolled around on the Laboratory floor, occasionally they would spring apart. Zim grinned as he kneed Dib in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him, however Dib was quick to recover and with a swift uppercut to the aliens face Zims smaller body went flying into the glass containers of water. Now neutralized they could damage not only the lab surrounding, but also the aliens sensitive skin. The glass containers shook slightly at the impact but at first revealed no damage. Zim glared at Dib, eyes narrowing.

"Stupid human! You're trapped! Theres no way you'll get out of here alive!" Zim grinned at him and stood about to tackle the human once again when the glass behind him cracked loudly and then gave way. Washing Zim to Dib and knocking the two across the room. Zim shrieked, immediately climbing on top of Dib like a cat out of a bath, his skin steamed and sizzled. The human Dib merely sputtered and tried to swat the wet Zim off of him. The computer however short circuited and the walls barring the base shut were lifted.

"Malfunction, Processing Error," Flashed across the screen and the computer beeped rapidly. Zim took an opportunity to kick Dib in the face before spider-legs protruded to carry him to the keyboards. Immediately activating a drainage system to remove the hazardous liquids Zim hurriedly tapped away trying to salvage the situation.

"Ah! My glasses!" Dib yelled, holding his newly snapped pair of glasses in his hands. He glared at the alien and chucked the pieces at him before deciding to take off before Zim could reactivate the security grid and trap him inside the labyrinth of a base again.

Zim glared darkly at Dib, "Don't you think I've had only this plan human! Soon the world will see the greatness of the Irken empire!" Dib laughed at him and ran to the elevator, relieved that the machinery would be taking him away.

"As if! You couldn't even handle your plan if it did succeed!" And with that Dib shot up through the house with a quickly cut off scream. The computer was nearly launching the human back outside, his body whizzing past Gir who was asleep on the couch, surrounded by cheese goo.

Zim groaned as he was finally left in peace, spider legs tik-taking across the floor as he made his way to the 'space.' A piece of cleansing chalk was pulled from his reserves and immediately began removing the remaining acidic liquid from his body, a salve applied to the lumpy skin areas most affected by the waters burns.

"Curse you Dib… You hinder my plans far too often." Antennae twitched as Zim began formulating another plan. "Soon you won't be able to do a thing about it.." Rubbing his claws together Zim set about cleansing his base, suddenly excited by his newest plan for earth domination.

The lawn knomes were glitching and had not moved much as Dib ran outside. An arm twitch and ahead turn was all the aliens defense could muster, however they seemed unable to function at the time. Dib however was eager to run home. Yelling that he had given earth yet another victory. Some ways away the janitor, now off duty slid his window shut. "Damn kids.. cant live far enough away from em.."

* * *

Apologies for the short chapter. Very amped to keep writing, work takes up most of my excess time however. Thank you to those whom have read or at least taken interest! Shout out to the US, UK, Mexico and Italy for going more than 1 chapter in! Whoever you are much love 3

R&R

-FN


	4. Fight!

The school bell ran with an ear bursting sound and kids immediately poured out of their respective classrooms. The teachers giving sighs of relief as their daily child sitting hours were finished, just as eager to go home as their students were. A few such children were holding hands as they walked out and others giggled among one another. This school session was beginning its wind down what with the spring and summer time once again approaching. Soon Hi-Skool would begin and the days of Middle-Skool would be a thing of the past and old year-books, for now however it was the beginning of something entirely new to their pitiful lives. The detention sessions for Zim and Dib had ended right before winter break had started leaving the two to fight to their heart and spoochs content during the brief relief from school work. A couple of the nerdy students were already speaking of going to better skools and the Kolleges they were trying to get into.

However none of these things were of interest to a certain green skinned student. Months had gone by and Zim had been oddly simple in his plans, perhaps just filling the time with distractions. Here and there a new feeble attempt was made, seagulls given laxatives to swarm the city, the rain having been stopped for a solid month during the rainy season was pretty odd but possibly more for the aliens comfort than an actual attempt at world domination.

Zims locker was slammed shut and Dib grinned at the alien, his pale pink fleshy hand holding the locker shut. Zim jumped with a little yell and yanked his claws out of the tiny doorway just in time to keep them from getting smashed. The lock itself probably became dented, as now the door wouldn't close all the way. Periwinkle eyes glared from the pink flesh piggy limb and immediately bore holes of death at the Dib-beast.

"Did I scare you Zim?" Dib sneered glaring right back at the alien. He always found his disguise stupid, stupid contacts, the pupils never contracting and their stupid boxy shape. So inhuman.

"AHAHA! Zim was not scared by your antics stupid human FILTH!" Zipper teeth hissed and Zim shoved the boy off his locker, reopening it to retrieve what he needed for the day. Atop the small bundle was a badly drawn human with blood spewing about. "Nothing on this planet is causing the almighty Zim the fear. Zim will cause the fear! ohoho yes the fear Zim will cause." His three fingered clawed hand dug into the papers and thin books as his arms shook with the intensity of his imaginative doom bringing. His eyes glinted as he brought himself back to the present and slammed his locker shut, nope, wasn't going to close again.

The human however didn't let up "You wont be able to get into the HiSkool here ZIM" Dib couldn't help but chuckle in that maniacal way for a moment. "They'll know something's different about you. We get a physical and a doctor has to write that you're healthy enough! Not to mention the shots." The human teased wanting to scare the alien as he could do on such few but amazingly entertaining occasions.

Zim sneered back at Dib before a simple retort came forth, sliding through zipper teeth. "Oh of course they will let me in Dib-thing. I have better grades than you, not to mention that with my superior intellect no one will be shooting Zim with anything." Grinning widely his thin tongue sticking out slightly to mock the human. "If anything they'd be shooting you!" Zims grinned widened, stretching across his face.

"…That doesn't make any sense Zim." Dib stared at the alien in confusion, his eyes half shutting in irritated confusion. "I meant that-"

"Go Home!" The custodian slapped a mop in the middle of the hall, interrupting the two before a fight could break out. He already had enough to clean up without these two making it worse. The mop furiously sloshed back and forth across the hallway as the poor not paid enough for this worker made it obvious they should get out now.

"AAHHH!" Zim gave a screech and immediately headed for the outside, Dib following after laughing at the fleeing alien.

"What about that Zim! Not afraid of a little water are you?!" Dib chuckled, already knowing the answer, having discovered the secret during the first years of elementary school with the green boy. Water, over 70% of the planet was water, and this alien was deathly allergic to it, but he wanted the planet anyways.

"urghfrmm." The custodian watched as the two left, mopping at the various grease, bile and sticky drinks that had been left behind. A gloved hand going up to shut the broken locker, though now that it was closed it probably wouldn't open again.

* * *

"You goin home already lizard?" Dib grinned and shoved his hands into his trench coat pockets. Fiddling with a bit of lint he found there he eyed Zims face, trying to piece together whatever the alien was planning.

Zims trek to his house was as usual since the detentions had ended, mentally the green boy gave a sign and ignored the humans pestering. The human and his large head would follow the alien all the way to his off-green house and then threaten to sneak and spy on him. Zim had grown tired of it and his plots to take over the world were growing weary with a lack of progress. It was probably due as well to his PAKs alterations, he'd hae to check to see if it was worth it.

Zim paused at the gate to his yard. "Why yes Dib-stupid. That's what normal human-worms do after school is it not?" Zipper teeth glinted in a grin. "And why would you follow me home! Creepy earth-creature! Invading an invaders personal space!" With a screech as Dib glared and lunged at him Zim tore up the path to his front door and flung open the door.

"Welcome Home Son!" The robotic parents were just as droll as they had first been and immediately zipped back to their closets once Zim had zoomed inside.

The door had shut behind him and the sound of one of the gnomes shooting at Dib followed by a yelp let him know that the bothersome meat creature was leaving him alone for now. "I'll figure it out Zim! Just like I have every time! You wont be getting Earth!" Then it went silent, shoes slapping against the side walk fading away.

Zim groaned, his body hurt, the growth was too much, probably having been repressed it seemed that now his system felt the need to make up for lost time. It had been maybe four months or so but already he had grown tremendously. Arriving on Earth a mere twenty-three ligas, prior to his modifications he had made it to a little over forty ligas. Now in his growing pains he felt that he was sure to double that.

"Computer! Run a diagnostic on my PAK, also tell Zim how tall he has become!" The order was barked out in his usual commanding better-than-thou way, though it was less grating than it usually was.

"Ugh if you really need it." The computer was as lazy, tired and uninterested as usual, however the cording dropped from the ceiling and plugged itself into the largest magenta port on Zim's PAK. The connection was painful, more so than normal making Zim grunt quietly. Fake eyes glared across the room as he waited. The television lit up black and across it some Irken words flashed as it warmed up before showing the efficiency and updates needed. However Zims eyes became round and innocent in shock as he saw his height.

"PAK efficiency is down by 7% Modifications are hindering efficiency and should be reverted to factory status. Life Support is at 75% weaponry at 36%. The height of Zim status Food Drone 52.5 Ligas," the computer drolled before retracting the wires. Zim stayed quiet for a moment before standing and grinning, ignoring the pain in his legs arms and spinal bits.

"YES! Zim has grown!" PAK legs peeked out and curled menacingly, "Nothing can stop Zim now! My power has increased! Ohh if the Tallests could see me now, they would bring the armada and blast this planet to mere space dust!" Antennae had perked with the heat of excitement, blood pounding through his veins. Cooly he peeked out the window as he righted his wig, not needing the Dib-stupid taking more photos. The flash was so irritating to his definitely not sensitive and most superior eyes.

"Sir, your PAK is running at less than regular efficiency, it is recommended that you update or request an upgrade to your PAK." The computer notified him. "Not that I care… Just reading the fine print warnings you ignore."

"SILENCE! Zims PAK is improved!" He whirled about and pointed at his computer, which was technically everywhere but he chose the screen as the specific spot. "Those settings had to be improved! The Tallests simply haven't been informed of Zims great advancements on the PAK system! They should reward Zim!"

With great gusto and charisma Zim set about his next plan, suddenly eager to over power the planet. Gloved claws tapped tips mischievously as disguised eyes narrowed. Ignoring the straining of anatomy he strode with purpose to his elevator, the white enveloping him as he was shot down to the labs.

"Now.. what methods should I use today?" He snickered to himself as many plans flickered through his minds eye. His eyes flicked to the cameras he had set up across his base. Mind twisting a few ideas together his grin widened. "Of course the humans wont even see this coming." Snickering to himself he set about inventing his newest doom invention of DOOM.

* * *

The chirping of birds outside and the gentle light of a good morning was in no comparison to the alarm that was threatening to wake the fitfully sleeping human. Scythe hair was bent and fuzzy, a slightly hairy pale arm pulled the covers over a pale face and then the body stilled, space print comforter lumped and wrinkled stilled before the alarm split the quiet peace.

"Aah!" Dib exclaimed, hands slapping at the bedside table to shut off the foul sounding device. With a not nearly satisfying enough 'click' the machine silenced, whether it was a snooze or the actual shut off Dib was sure to find out soon enough. Groaning at the sound of silence dib ribbed the sleep from his eyes, the heel of his palm pressing against tired eyes; before fingers danced along the bedside table once again, this time in search of his glasses. Once the lenses were in place he blinked and stood getting ready as per his usual routine. However as he finished his shower dressing and teeth brushing ritual he noticed something was slightly off about the first floor of his home. The tv was already on and Gaz was already awake, if she even slept he wasn't sure, however she was staring at the screen of her GameSlave III with MTV playing. Some new band was up on screen with their weird music video playing. Dibs ears twitched, if they didn't it sure felt like it, something was weird sounding. Brushing it off he continued his routine with little issue but his mind felt dazed and unfocused. Soon enough the two siblings were on their way to school, walking with some distance between them, however the daze continued as it seemed he could sill hear the music. Whether Gaz was affected as well he wasn't sure.

"Good Morning Class." Mrs. Bitters said through gritted teeth. "Today we will be learning about the doomed fate of reality and the never ending cycle known as adulthood."

Dib blinked his mind suddenly coming to life. How had he already gotten to class? Did he stop at his locker at all? Unsure amber eyes shifted nervously about the room, the students seemed a bit more droopy and unfocused than usual, and most had at least one headphone in. There was a drolling quiet hum of something was keeping them hypnotized.

Eyes widened behind rimmed glass and amber eyes locked onto Zim. The green boy was paying attention diligently, occasionally scratching something down. However as Zims eyes drifted and caught Dibs gaze he grinned evilly, thin tongue flicking out much too alien like to be human. Dib wanted to yell suddenly, point and accuse; the alien in the room! It was right there! However the quiet hum was keeping him trapped in his mind, though things were beginning to clear.

The shrill bell sounded again and the other students stood, nearly zombie like, all at once, the unsion of their evacuation nearly scaring Dib. However he couldn't bring his face to express it. The chatter sounded nearly normal, however it was muffled. Maybe it wasn't everyone it was just him? Dib stood, teetering slightly on long limbs before he walked slowly towards the door. Stopping he turned to muster a glare at the alien.

"Zim…" He growled, not able to form anything else and turned with a huff, hiking his back pack strap a little higher on his shoulder. Lunch went by just the same as the rest of the afternoon went. Muddy thoughts were clearing and Dib began to notice the rest of the student body was rather subdued, even Torque, testy jock-to-be was more quiet than he usually was. His weight he constantly repped with was slowly moving, dangling in a fist next to his hip. No lifting, no rapid reps and flexing that would draw the attention of oogling females.

Dib paused by his locker, he had no idea what he needed to bring home today. Somehow the entire day had passed in a blurred smudge of noise and color. Sighing he decided to just stuff his bag in the little compartment before slamming it and locking it. The noise was jarring and startled dib. Ringing in his ears the fog suddenly dissipated, the clarity bringing a head-rush and Dib grit his teeth, turning to Zim, who was also at his locker putting things away. Stalking over Dib grinned coolly and slammed the locker shut on the alien once again.

"AAAH!" Zim yelled, having been caught by surprise this time. "Dib-thing! You have trapped the mighty ZIMS arm in the stupid broken door contraption!" Blue eyes glared, a seething look upon green features as his other hand attempted to pull the door loose.

"I know you're doing something Zim." Dib leaned closer to Zims face, getting uncomfortably close, human breath passing over Zims forehead. "Everyone else cant see it but they're all messed up because of you!" Dib pressed the door harder but the claws were forcing the door from closing too hard.

Antennae twitched under the wig and Zim chuckled, "You were so hazy today Dib-THING, care to share what was going through your rotting brain meats?" Zipper teeth flashed in a grin and Zims fist tucked into dibs stomach. Now knocked off balance Zim hurriedly pulled his now bruised arm free and shut his locker, the door however banged and hung barely open, the lock still broken.

Coughing as he stumbled back Dib grinned, "So you HAVE done something!" The alien merely shrugged, wanting to get off the school grounds before the fighting would begin and the detentions would return.

The moment Zim set foot off campus Dib came charging. The cackling was creepy and impossibly unnoticeable, however the humans around were gone, mentally not physically, the hum of noise in the air endless.

Zim took off running, there was a park nearby, the one where he had crashed his ship many years ago, however his longer legs made the trip shorter than he had anticipated and nearly missed the gap in the gates. Turning on a booted heel he darted down the cement paths, a few human females were out walking their little worm-smeets however Zim paid no care and rushed by them.

Hot on these booted heels was Dib, he had no really useful weapons on him, aside from those alien grade cuffs and a drawing compass he'd forgot to put away before leaving his locker. Taking mind of the few mothers that were out with their babies Dib grinned, his longer legs gave him the strides he needed to catch up and soon he was tackling Zim into the grass. A muddy-brained human was walking its dog nearby, the animal leaving a fresh pile of dookie behind however the human paid no mind to it nor the two boys fighting and continued walking.

Zim hissed as he was tackled down but gave a loud maniacal laugh as he heard the cuffs being brought out. "Really? Those stupid cuffs again? You've never been able to put them on me!" In all truth Dib had never been able to wrestle the alien down to the point of actually testing them out, plus their first attempted application had them vaporized before they could lock around those skinny green wrists.

"Well every day is a good day to give them a shot!" Dib grinned and swung at the back of Zims head, pounding the flat green face into the grass and dirt. Zim yelled and spit out the dirt that got in his mouth, quickly flipping himself around he kicked and punched, trying to throw the larger organism off. A knee to the tender spot between Dibs legs did just the trick and dib rolled off, tears in his eyes as he glared at Zim, muttering about how unfair a low blow was.

"Hehe No blow is too low for Zim!" He announced victoriously, moving to stand and tackle Dib, wanting to return the face to earth surface gesture. However his legs were swept out from under him as dibs leg swung through.

"Of course not! You're so short you cant manage any higher ones!" Dib laughed through his pain at the roasting comment. However he wasted no time, immediately he clamored over to Zim and grabbed the alien by the forehead, feeling the wig shift slightly as he made to remove it. Claws dug into the scrap of fur also known as a wig and kept it planted to his head, PAK legs poking out from his back threateningly. However Dib had other plans. Withdrawing the manacles he snapped one around the aliens wrist and the other around his own. Now there was no way Zim could escape.

Zim froze, an antennae twitching as he heard the cli-cli-cli-click of the cuff securing around his wrist. "YOU FOUL HUMAN!" He screeched immediately, the cuffs doing nothing other than latching their limbs together.

Dib stared in shock. Wow what a waste of a re-order. "What? They really don't do anything?" He moved off of Zim and shook at the bonds, wanting something cool to happen.

"Of COURSE they don't you stupid meat-worm!" Zims glare hardened further if it was even possible. "How would someone be able to create a wrist biding technology able to incapacitate an extra terrestrial if they _haven't met one!_ "

Dib blinked, suddenly wanting the cuffs off. They didn't do anything. Great. Feeling Zims heated glare Dib shrugged though as he looked around he found something even better than fighting his worst enemy and discovering useless magazine item orders.

"Oh my… what are those two doing?" One of the two mothers was sitting on the bench a short ways away. She gave worried looks to her female friend and the two hurriedly left the park.

Dib grinned and was about to say something snide to his now cuffed alien when a three-finger punch landed in his cheek. "YOUR STUPID TOY HAS INHIBITED ZIM!" However the human was too busy laughing to shout his victory. "And Zim is not too short for higher blows as you can see." Periwinkle fake eyes narrowed and green brows drew together in a hateful appearance.

Dib made to rub his face but found the intended hand cuffed. Instead his free hand moved up to rub and he grinned. "Hey Zim guess what? VICTORY FOR EARTH!" Dib yelled at the green bug boy, purposefully aiming it at the antennae hidden under the black haired wig. Zim ready to retort bitterly as he turned away faltered. Suddenly finding the energy meant for caring, arguing and more specifically for punching stupid pig-beasts in the face, missing.

Green skin paled and Zim eyed the cuffs suspiciously. "Yes yes yes whatever the Dib-thing has to say to make itself feel better." The gloved cuffed hand waved nonchalantly. "Now free Zim before he brings down an ultimate wrath." The words matched his mind however the intent to destroy and fight was leaving. Dib gave Zim an odd look before waving his hand at the aliens face.

Zim blinked slowly, the hand was phased, like a strobe light was cutting bits of motion from his mind, leaving disjointed gaps in movement. He tried to muster his PAK legs to scurry him home, however they had been stuck in their position, partially hanging out however limp and lifeless. The radio wasn't responding either.

"Zim?" Dib watched as the fake eyes were suddenly blank and Zim fell to the side with a heavy thud, the weird alien technology on his back hissing and smoking slightly.

* * *

Woot. I got me a couple betas to help me over my little stumble stones but anyone who might be able to led a hand grammatically or what not pls pm me. Thank you to gothgod9415 for helping with the conversation starters! Also a shout out to all you guys reading. Thank you to the US, Mexico, UK, Brazil, Romania and Australia for going through all these chapters so far! Much love for your reading!

-FN


	5. Frisbee!

Dib's amber eyes stared in confusion at the slumped body of his enemy. Yes, he didn't really expect the cuffs to work. He worn them himself plenty of times but nothing happened. When he was in Elementary Skool he had once tried to use them on Zim; but they had been destroyed before the attempt could be completed and marked 'successful.' However with the way Zim looked small and fragile as he laid there, limp against the Earth's surface. Dib couldn't help but stare at him, his eyes wide, and the sun glaring into his lenses. He couldn't believe it. By every account this should be a victory for him! Earth's defender defeating a great alien evil, hell-bent on conquering -or was it destroying?- the Earth and its inhabitants! By all accounts, it was a victory! He should be celebrating! Going to Mysterious Mysteries H.Q, as he dragged Zim's crippled body along, without his disguise, for another special episode! They'd all see then! By all accounts, Dib should do that, and yet…

Dib couldn't help but sigh. He shook his head, not having a single clue as to what to do now. What was the point? Who was he kidding? Worst-case scenario that was most likely was; everyone would believe Zim over him, even without Zim's disguise, and Dib would be thrown into a mental hospital again.

'Mental institution' Dib reminded himself. Hospital implies healing. All they did on him was research and… experiments.

Dib shook his head, ridding himself of such thoughts. His gaze drifted across the park, his ears picking up mumbling as a strong wind blew by. Even with Dib's trench coat, the strangely cold wind sent shivers throughout his body. He hugged himself for warmth as he glanced around. He saw passerbys begin to gather from across the street and gawk at them. He could hear them begin to mumble even louder, from the distance they shared. Dib opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. This… was not a good situation to be in. For either of them… Whatever Zim had planned was foiled… but now? For all intents and purposes, the passerbys saw two strange kids, handcuffed together, and one of them who happened to be unconscious. Dib saw one of them whip out their phone to call 911.

'Crap…'

Dib didn't know if the cuffs blocked some sort of mechanical signals through Zim's body, which interfered with Zim's ability to function… but what he did know was that they had to leave. Immediately.

Sighing, Dib slowly brought himself to his knees and tried and scoop the alien up. Zim's spider legs were limp as well. The single segment of them protruding about a foot out from the small PAK that held them secret from the world. The blind eyes of oblivious humans would never be able to guess where they originated from. Sometimes Dib wondered why he even bothered, knowing that.

But, well whatever, the cuffs worked. Zim's head lolled about while Dib's arms shook and strained as he struggled to awkwardly pick Zim up. The cuffs not helping in any way, whatsoever. Wedging the smaller green body just so, Dib stood. It was difficult, but not as much as he had thought it would be.

Dib glanced down and saw one of Zim's arms was wedged awkwardly between them. Dib groaned. He imagined the alien complaining and demanding that Dib arrange himself so that Zim could be at optimum comfort levels whilst being transported by the human-stink-carriage.

'God… even when unconscious, he's annoying!'

The little scrap of hair that Zim called a wig beginning to slip. Dib's eyes widened in concern. Crap. Booted feet immediately set their course, walking as fast as they are able with the dead weight in his arms. Dib tried being as inconspicuous as possible, but couldn't help but stare at the alien. He'd never had the chance to see Zim so up close and personal… Without the jagged zipper teeth, harsh comments, and plans to take over the world. Dib's world, his home… Earth.

The wig flopped slightly. Antennae underneath were floppy, akin to soaked spaghetti. They probably had something to do with helping holding the wig in place as without their prominent grasp the wig waved and swayed about as Dib walked.

His feet stopped at the gate. The dark pavement ended there, giving way to streets and the city. The sidewalk stretched to both sides before him. Left or right? "Ughh," Dib groaned, realizing that he would have to lug his extra-terrestrial package all the way to the aforementioned alien's equally alien home. A pause existed for a moment as Dib thought this over. He'd need the key to un-cuff them. Feet twisted with a small crunch of sand and little rocks under his boot. The key was in his room somewhere, and until it was found, they'd be stuck together. Dib swallowed thickly, ignoring all the mutterings, points and round-eyed looks from his fellow humans. It was definitely a weird situation, not to mention one of the two in mention was a pale green color.

Booted feet hurriedly clunked down the sidewalk, crunching fallen leaves on the sidewalk. Dib turned to walk up the small path that led to his homes front door. His little human arms were shaking slightly at the effort exerted. Dib's arms slipped, almost dropping Zim when they had rounded the corner. So close… Zim was nearly folded in half. The trip had been several blocks after all and Dib glanced back over his shoulder, every other human he encountered, and the ones gawking at him, were out of sight. He felt his jaw drop. In no way did he think he was able to carry the green boy as far as he had!

Zim was slipping out of his grasp, which prompted Dib to shift Zim's weight under his arm and back into it. Upon reaching his very own front door, Dib could've cried in happiness. He was tired, but he was finally home. He leaned down. Zim's legs were dropped to the ground and the rest of the alien's body nearly followed. Expecting this, his grasp tightened on Zim's shoulders. Partially squishing the alien into the doorframe as he tried to keep Zim from falling, while Dib tried to open the door. His fingers grasped the knob and turned it.

It stopped after a very minimal effort. Dib cursed under his breath. Of course the door was locked. "Damn it where did I put my keys?" Muttering more expletives under his breath, Dib felt about his person. Not in the coat, just a compass there. He patted another one of his pockets, and with a short lived jingle, they were found. "Of course they're there." Dib muttered louder, frustrated and wanted to fight something, despite how heavy his arms and legs felt. The keys were found, whoopidoo. However the arm that accompanied the pocket was busy keeping Zim from smashing his head to the ground. Plus, the handcuffs would have made it difficult enough even if Zim wasn't incapacitated.

His free hand had to reach around awkwardly, digging through the wrong-sided pocket with minimal ease before the keys were fished out. Only a few actual keys were on the ring however the one meant for the house had one of those noise-silencing doo-dads. Jamming the house key into its slot and turning it, Dib sighed as the door opened. His amber eyes narrowed behind rimmed lenses. Gaz was sitting right there, playing with her GameSlaveIII on the couch. "You didn't hear me at the door?" Dib's frustration only increased. He badly wanted to fight something. Not his sister though… well…. maybe a little, but she was terrifying. Every time he looked at her, he could feel his heartbeat accelerate furiously. She'd eat his soul as a snack before dinner.

"Whatever." The distracted usual response, with the undertones of being fed up and already tired of his antics.

Dib's arms wrapped tightly around Zim's waist whilst Dib struggled to carry him inside. It was then that Dib regretted his arms not being used to lifting or carrying moderately heavy things. Dib followed his nose to the kitchen. Was something burning…? He hauled the unconscious alien over his shoulder as Dib peered inside.

Membrane barely spared a glance to the kitchen doorway. "Dib! Have you brought a friend home?" One could nearly say the father figure was surprised, after all Dib didn't have friends. Blue goggle-lensed eyes returned to the concoction in front of him, hidden to Dib by his father's body. However it didn't take much guessing; it certainly stunk the kitchen up. Super toast… and it was sure to be followed by super eggs… It was ridiculous!

Dib rolled his eyes, "yeah. I tried those magazine order alien cuffs on him and he freaked out. I lost the key because of it." Dib explained, though he didn't know why he bothered. It was just more noise without meaning. Still, he continued, "anyway, I—"

"Not now son!" Membrane cut him off. "Go play with your friends in your room! The kitchen and the lab are off limits!"

Dib shrugged, he didn't want to bother with the rest of anything he wanted to explain. Unless it was 'real science' he knew his father had no interest in it. Without responding, he simply followed his dad's wishes and hefted Zim up the stairs. His already tired and heavy arms strained with the effort, but as he dropped Zim onto his bed, upon reaching his room. It was time to take a break.

Slumping against the side of the bed, and his cuffed arm awkwardly positioned above him, Dib sighed. Damn sitting down was great sometimes… However, the time for a break wasn't now and his eyes drifted about his room, wondering where he had left the damned key. Reaching for the most available and seemingly logical place, he began to tear his room apart. He pulled open his bed-stand's drawer. A couple of sealed and out-of-date condoms, a box of tissues, pencils, magazines, an old pair of glasses. Dib groaned in aggravation. Doing this one armed would take forever! He resorted to throwing everything out of the draw, single-handedly. Just then a quiet beeping took place in the room, though Dib took little interest as he shoved the drawer shut and opened the second one. A couple books, wrapper debris, and photos of Zim exposed as the alien he is. Though no key. His frustration increased again, but this time he was beginning to feel his blood boil. Single-handedly, he ripped the second draw out of its compartment and chucked its contents on the floor.

The beeping continued. It was only when it upped in frequency and became high-pitched, did Dib look to find the source. The cuffs flashed a few times, in sync with the beeping before they lit one final time and then went silent. The manacles released their prisoners with a loud click.

The cuffs were immediately yanked away and chucked across the room. "Of course they would do that!" Gritting his teeth and glaring at the cuffs, now laying on the floor, Dib groaned and slowly stood. It was a little odd that Zim had passed out, but… whatever. It wasn't really his problem. The alien was still unconscious on the bed, no movements made. However, the PAK seemed to retract the weird-spider-leg-thingies. The PAK's panels shut down with a quiet click, then glowed a soft magenta hue.

'Rebooting.'

Dib nearly jumped out of his skin as an audible electrical pulse was sent through Zim's body and the alien's eyes shot open. His jagged teeth revealed as Zim's jaw dropped. Whether it was a silent scream or an inhale, Dib had no idea. The hum of electricity dissipated and Zim desperately gasped both in shock and for breath. Tears gathered at the edges of his eyes and soon blurred his vision. The wig was frazzled, messy from their fighting, while fine hairs stood on end. The static evident as the electricity popped between the threads.

"Agh!" Zim ripped the wig from his head. He rubbed his now stiff antennae. One of them reminded Dib of a slightly shrivelled French-fry left in the deep-fryer for several hours. Zim probably was revived a little too much, Dib figured. Plus; the static and the constant rubbing from the wig only irritated the wound.

Dib chuckled. He always found joy in Zim's suffering. "Damn, I thought you died or something. That's too bad, though… I was planning on getting in contact with Mysterious Mysteries so they can have a special episode of your autopsy." Dib half-joked… though, now that he thought about it… that really isn't such a bad idea…

Zim's antennae twitched and flattened against gooseflesh-y green skin, his wig hurriedly fixed into position. "You foul stink-beast! What have you done to ZIM?!" His spider legs slid out from his PAK. Easily lifting Zim from his seat on the bedspread to his booted feet on the floor before they retracted back into his PAK. His mind backtracked, trying to recall something useful from his fragmented memory. Dib's room was semi-familiar… but last he recalled, Zim was fighting with the pathetic stink-beast in the park near their skool! That filthy pig-beast park was a good six blocks or so away from the skool, if Zim's PAK had the right coordinates.

Dib could only grin, his teeth showing with an innocent smile that fooled no one, least of all Zim. Dib wanted to put that weird moment behind them immediately, anyway. "Oh, well just wanted to try out my awesome cool new alien catching cuffs I got from the mail. And what do you know? They work!" Dib's grin grew wider by the second as he walked across the room to pick them up. "You don't remember much do you? Haha these things are perfect!" His glass lenses glinted in the light, giving Dib a sort of psychopathic look as his evil smile was the largest it's ever been. He looked down at the cuffs he held, his smile becoming even wider, if that were possible. Oh, the things he could do with this…

Zim's eyes narrowed, not at all impressed, and wanting nothing more than to beat his arch-nemesis to a bloody-pulp. However, these cuffs… They made his spooch queasy. He could feel it twist and churn. He covered his clawed hand over his mouth. His throat felt hot. He couldn't swallow. Zim's fake eyes hurriedly searched for an escape. He spotted the window. Hissing in a very alien-like manner Zim bolted, his spider legs sprouting forth from his PAK once more. Swiftly, they flicked the window open and without a backwards glance, Zim jumped out into the back yard.

Dib chuckled evilly, the psychopathic glint in his lenses still there. He ran a hand through his sweaty and tousled hair. The grin remained on his face. "See you at skool tomorrow… Zim." Dib moved to shut the window. It was getting dark out now. The sun finished setting, and only the purple of the fading sunset was visible. It was the only resemblance of the day he missed during his cuffed adventure.

* * *

Zim was buried in his lab for the night. Too angry to sleep. Invaders weren't scared; they weren't afraid of anything! He was angry! Bested by his nemesis, and here he was, curled up in a corner of his lab! Albeit, armed, but still curled up! This was anger! Not fear! It was… – Zim's antennae twitched at a sudden clank from the machinery in his lab. His body stilled for a moment. His antennae twitching, listening, sensing, waiting. And… nothing. The computer didn't blare loudly about an intruder. Earlier, he even asked G.I.R to watch for any intruders, though he has low expectations of that S.I.R unit. But still, he heard nothing.

A couple hours passed without a change. Eventually, Zim couldn't stand it anymore and tiptoed about his labs in search for one.

How could he keep the Dib from doing that again? His mind cranked out a few ideas, all of them stupid, but they would work if they needed to. Floaties, like those that human children wore to the water basins of death? Probably his best bet. A forcefield maybe; it'd of course be invisible to the human eye. But unable pass through by the humans' accursed cuffs? Nah, the floaties were a better idea. His PAK told him so. And such as it was that Zim stayed up for a few hours longer, determination filling his being as he quickly whipping up a set of arm floaties. Duck shaped on one side and the other bearing the images of small clipper handed crustaceans. Zim nodded at his handy work and then set about his newest plans to end the human world, as they knew it. Pitiful stink-beast humans! His claws latched onto the floaties and thrust them above head, his arms out-stretched. "AH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" His manic laughter echoed throughout the lab.

An alarm was quietly blipping at him waking him up from the sleep he didn't remember going to. He awoke, sputtering and inhaling sloppily. "Agghrrr?" Zim's sleepy, red eyes glanced around. Flashbacks of the cuffs suddenly coming to mind.

"Eyyy Mast'r?" The robot sung off-key. His little legs excitedly clinking as G.I.R ran about the base on the ground level, until he flushed himself down the toilet-elevator in search of his Master. Who, in question, hurriedly grabbed some random piece of equipment and reached up for his tools to mend… whatever it was. He did not just fall asleep at his workbench!

"What is it G.I.R?" He asked in a dry irritated tone. His body hurt from the day before's recharging at such an awkward position. He craned his neck back, allowing for the weird sensation of his bones popping and slipping back into place.

The little clinks paused before they resumed at a rapid pace. G.I.R zoomed over through one of the doors that led to the maze of other hallways and rooms in Zim's lab. "Masterrrrr! You missed breakfast!" G.I.R squealed.

Zims antennae twitched in irritation. What a stupid robot! Disturbing Zim's important sleep for such trivial things.

"And the bus just left too." G.I.R said sadly his eyes glancing to the floor.

"Hmmm?! The bus has left without Zim?" His magenta eyes widened in surprise. He hurried to the elevator. The main floor of his house came too slowly for his liking, as he slipped on his contacts and fixed his wig. He scowled as he looked down at his uniform. He'd once been so proud to wear such a garment… now it was filthied with wrinkles and drool stains!

Stepping outside he noticed that yes, the bus had indeed left. He watched the yellow beetle of a transportation method pause at the red sign on the corner then turning, disappearing from sight.

"I'm sorry master! I tried to find you but you weren't there to turn off the beeping machine!" G.I.R frantically apologized. His voice hiccupping as he sobbed. He then screamed his high-pitched sorrow, his arms latched onto one of Zim's legs, his feet kicking heavily at the ground. Zim grunted in disgust and shook G.I.R off. G.I.R didn't seem to notice. He continued his wailing, only to stand suddenly and grin. The episode mere seconds ago, forgotten. "I'm gonna make some tacos!" He beamed and ran back inside.

The door shut and Zim stared dismally at the path he would now have to walk. He shrugged, "a short walk such as this is nothing compared to the training experienced just to be here." Zim announced to no one but himself and set about his walk to skool. He was nearly there when he spotted the purple haired demon-child walking just across the street. She paused at a crosswalk, not bothering to look as she then set about crossing the road. Immediately, the cross guard bolted into the lanes. Her little red not so circular shaped sign flailing about. A truck came screeching to a stop and the two adult humans looked at each other both clearly a little scared.

Zim's chin jutted out in thought. The humans stopped for the weird red not-circle. Eh… must be a weird custom.

"Confused, ZIM?"

"AAAHH" Zim screamed, jumping away from the source of the voice. He whirled about and glared at the smelly stink-pig source. "Dib-stink." Eyes narrowed and Zim hurriedly made to cross the street, wanting to get away from Dib as well as make it across before the humans decided to stop staring at the red shape of motion control.

Dib chuckled and walked nonchalantly across, however his fellow humans paid him no mind and set to going to wherever they were intending to. The little big-headed child dodged his way across and sighed in relief. No damage this time. He was going to complain about it to the cross guard but he found her already back in the street helping some other kids across. "… figures." Dib shuffled the rest of the way to skool, his trench coat collar high and his eyes focused on Zim.

* * *

"Due to the lack of healthy students in our skool, once a week you will be sentenced to Physical Education." Mrs. Bitters glared at her class. She despised each and every little person in the room. "At the end of the year you'll have to pass the president's test. If you fail you will not be going to Hi-Skool next year." Mrs. Bitters' soul was appeased by the groans and disheartened look of her students. "Quiet!" She snapped. "As far as I'm concerned you are all doomed. Doomed, doomed, doomed."

The lunch bell couldn't ring soon enough.

"Doomed, doom— after lunch all of you miserable little children will be heading out to the track. From there on you will be someone else's problem." Those were the words of support their lovely teacher gave, and the children didn't seem so excited to go to lunch with the news of exercise and being outside.

Zim fidgeted slightly, his arm-floatie-cuff-prevention-system was secured to his limbs, though inactive for the moment to ensure the element of surprise and that success remained in his irken fist. Gathering his papers, Zim hurried out into the hall and to his locker. He slammed it open and stuffed his things in it. Dib walked after him, wanting to pester and irritate the alien; both options are viable methods of ensuring the world's safety and gathering information on Zim's next plans. He was about to slam the locker on Zim's arms, just the usual method of greeting and beginning the attack. The locker shut before Dib could reach it and saw Zim glared at him, and how his fake lensed eyes narrowed dangerously. "Dib-ffffffilth," Zim hissed as he drew out his insult, especially disgusted by this particular human on this particular day. "You think you will get the best of Zim? ZIM is MIGHTY! Your metal door flinging attacks are useless!"

Dib stared at Zim for a minute, thrown off just a little. "Hah just wait until that test in PE. You're gonna fail it! And then they'll wonder why, then BAM they find out you're an alien!" Dib chuckled and started walking towards the cafeteria. "Just you wait Zim!"

Zim merely glared after Dib, "oooh, Dib. I will pass that test of precedence with the HIGHEST SCORE!" Uniform black booted feet sought after the Dib. The alien wanting nothing more than to kick the Dib-stupid in his stupid face.

Lunch went by as messily as usual. The children sitting at their tables, shoveling spoonful after spoonful of the disgusting slop this skool called food into their faces. Zim clenched his jaws shut as he shuddered. The previously-vomit-inducing slop was particularly disgusting today, and he couldn't stop staring at it. His antennae twitched with displeasure under the wig. This of course attracted the Dib's attention. Stupid Dib-filth! Couldn't he smell the horrid stench!?

"ALIEN!" Dib whined as he yelled to everyone in the cafeteria. He turned around, arms out-spread in disbelief of the obliviousness of everyone. "Come on! How can you not see it?" Dib pointed at Zim's green face behind him.

Zim rolled his eyes and smacked the hand away from his face. "C'mon, Dib… not this again!" Zim's eyes narrowed. "You've been at this ever since I came to this skool! I am a perfectly normal stink-worm! Pig-stink!"

Their banter was unsurprising and had become the norm. It happened every day after all. If the students were lucky, a fight would break out and then that would be something worth watching. Otherwise, they didn't pay them any heed.

Zim's and Dib's loud bickering continued. Soon, Zim was fed up with the constant amount of tongue sticking from one another, and pointedly flung a spoonful of peas at his nemesis. They hit Dib square in the forehead, and amazingly bounced off his head at a great distance. "HAHAHA!"

Dib glared at Zim, and before Dib could launch his own food catapult, the janitor walked by and gave the two of them a dirty look.

Lunch ended with the shrill bell ringing, and the class finished their lunch-ly duties before heading out to the changing rooms. After that, the track field. It wasn't as hot as usual, but the temperatures were sure to be rising as they reached summer. Zim scratched at his head. The wig was so irritating… not to mention it muffled his hearing and senses a significant amount. They all had weirdly short shorts and a white T that had their skool's name on it.

"Alright class! Today you're going to be doing some warm-ups and then a half-mile run! If no one takes more than five minutes to do this run then we'll move on to some Ultimate Frisbee!" Bellowed their manish-female PE teacher. The muscles on her… she looked like she could break them in two! Still, Dib always had to be the one to ruin things. His hand shot into the air and wiggled slightly.

"Yes… ermh… Dib." The PE teacher lifted up some pages on her clipboard, Dib's face showed up on one of the student profiles. There was no way she would remember all these dumb kids' names and faces otherwise.

"What happens if we don't finish in under five minutes?" The boy's arm lowered and about half the class glared at him. He grinned sheepishly, his arms behind his back.

The PE teacher glared at Dib, her glare far less intimidating than his sister's. Maybe she should ask Gaz for lessons? "If you don't finish you all have to run the track until class is over!" Everyone in the class glared harder at Dib. "And you Dib, you get detention after skool! You don't get to stop running until 5 o'clock!" She yelled.

Zim snickered at this.

"You too!"

Zim's snickering was silenced and he glared at the teacher, then at Dib. "Stupid-stink-beast-worm-child." He muttered to Dib, his glare now turning to the human.

The class proceeded to one end of the tracks inner grassy area. It was shorter grass here, though obviously not well cared for… budget cuts probably. Zim glanced around at all the other kids stretching, pulling at their own arms, reaching down to their feet as they stood and sat, along with stepping on each other's feet while the other pointlessly sat up and lied down. What was the point of all these odd stretching motions? They'd never done this in the academy. Who would have time to do the 'stretching' when ambushed? Zim was utterly confused.

After such nonsense they were sentenced to the running. "And remember! Thanks to Dib if anyone doesn't finish in less than five minutes you're all going to be running until the skool bell rings! Four laps! Let's go!" A whistle was pressed to the PE teacher's lips and at the sound of the obnoxious tweet the class moved. Some went faster some went slower, Zim was somewhere in the middle. He wanted to be the first one to finish the stupid running, but he knew he needed to conserve his energy. Dib was running as well, though to some, it seemed like he was chasing Zim. The other kids steered clear, muttering 'freak' as they avoided the weird big-headed boy.

Zim noticed the people around him suddenly drifting in distance. He chanced a glance over his shoulder and yelled. "Stay away from meee!" Immediately upping the pace, all intentions of conserving energy, gone to the wind, Zim zoomed past a person in front of him. "Out of my way!" was the brief snarl he gave the poor kid. The bends in the track were redundant and irritated Zim, however this was a battle of endurance. And Zim knew he had the endurance, thanks to his invader training. Dib was not far behind, however as he caught up to some of the more popular jocks-to-be, they deemed him unworthy of passing; Zim had slipped by only because they hadn't expected it.

The laps continued and time slipped by. Zim was panting, last leg of the ring. Dib had fallen behind, now mid-herd, though the other kids were sure to keep their distance. Zim was still in 'first' and very pleased. Some of the jocks weren't taking kindly to being usurped by the weird green kid but were unable to keep pace with the alien in disguise. Green passed the strip of faded white paint that signaled the end of the run. Zim grinned, panting slightly and with a slight glare to the teacher, moved to stand in the meager shade of one of the skool's few trees. Why was it that skools always had baby little saplings of trees to stand under? The jocks were next to finish, followed by some of the few nerds who had actual muscle on them. Zim chuckled and watched as the rest of the class followed, Dib dragging behind, now last in the group.

Glasses were foggy with perspiration; Dib was in last place. Dead last. The other students glared at him, waiting for him and a couple other stragglers to cross the line before time was up. Dib wheezed and the PE teacher grinned, just a few more seconds before she could torment the class to no end. Dib flopped past the line and then immediately lay down on the grass in the shade of Zims tree; his little human body wheezing and dripping with exertion.

"Whats the matter Dib-worm? Can't your species handle a little running?" Zim grinned toothily; those zipper teeth were so inhuman.

"Aahhhuu… ehh" Dib wanted to chew the alien out, however his lungs were too busy trying to help his body recover.

"Stupid human, your inferior body is no match for Zim." The alien crouched down by Dib's big head. "I have trained for years to be here Dib, your pathetic body is incapable of protecting this planet! All I have to do is evade you and you will never catch me." Zim then flicked Dib's forehead and walked over to the PE teacher, awaiting the next task.

She was displeased. "Well, since you all made it in under the five minute limit. We will now play Ultimate Frisbee." The teacher went over the rules briefly before dividing the class into two teams. Dib and Zim were thankfully on the same side, otherwise who knew what fights would come from the two pitted against each other?

The game was fast, at least for Dib it was. His body was tired, weakened by the exertion and he spent most of his time standing around. No one would throw him the Frisbee anyways. Zim was uninterested, he didn't care about any of these human battle-training strategies. This was stupid. How would Ultimate Frisbee help them in an intergalactic battle? It wouldn't. Zim nodded to himself, arms crossed as he agreed with his own train of thought.

However lighting struck as the Frisbee drifted down towards him. Eyes rounded innocently as it landed so softly in his claws. Then he noticed the opposing team rushing at him and Zim immediately tossed the disc away, probably not to one of his own team-mates, they were so far away. Whatever happened it was great because the opposing team cried in anger and turned on their heels, only to realize that the game had ended. That Zim had ever so unknowingly caused the winning play. A few kids reluctantly gave him a pat on the back and muttered 'good job' to him as they headed back to the changing room.

Zim looked at his class suspiciously, "Hmm? Zim won? Well of course, Zim is the greatest." A grin spread across his face, somehow he had won their stupid battle training game. Zim began managing his way towards the rooms of changing as well, the teacher having already gone inside to escape the heat. Dib had sulked and already changed.

Dib rubbed his glasses clean, pulling his backpack onto his now stinky sweaty back. He really needed to work out more. Eyes flicked around the room. Zim hadn't come in to change yet. Eyes narrowed and Dib rushed outside as fast as his sore muscles would let him. Zim was yelling something, outside as far as he could tell. He ran out and found Torque and Smacky near the bleachers. Those two had grown large quickly, sure to become football players in Hi-skool or something. Zim however was their current victim. Not that the alien wasn't putting up a fight. The alien swung and kicked, getting the two back pretty well. A bruise was forming over Zims eye and a bit of pink dribbled from his mouth. A fist full of alien rage was the last straw for Torque. The punch having knocked him in the nose, the crack and spurt of blood drove the kid mad. Zim screeched as Smacky grabbed him by the arm, Torque grabbing the other with one hand and then Zim's forehead with his free hand. The two forced Zim to the ground.

Dib's eyes widened and he ran-limped over. "Hey! Cut it out!" The camera he always had, quickly coming out into view. Smacky looked up grinning, wanting to beat the other weird kid too. However the glint of a camera sent Smacky to grab Torque and the two bolted the scene. Even if they beat the shit out of Dib and broke the camera. Any evidence was sure to get the two kicked out of skool. Two beaten up kids and a broken camera were sure enough evidence for that after all.

Dib ran over and knelt down by the alien poking at a shoulder just to find him limp and unresponsive. The skool bell rang and Zim still didn't move, the only signs of life were the clicks and short circuit sounds coming from his PAK. Dib found himself being creeped out by it. Zim's eyes were half open, the contacts staring blankly at some fixed point far away.

"Zim? Damn it!" Dib looked around, the skool kids were all leaving. No one would be coming back here for a while, probably not until tomorrow. Dib groaned and scooped Zim's upper half up, an arm sliding under the alien's PAK and heaving them both up. It would be a great moment to turn the alien in, but not like this. Dib felt something weird bubble up inside him. He felt bad for the alien. He just got pummeled by two dumb idiot-jocks. No, if Zim would ever be turned in, it would be by Dib's fists beating him, and by Dib's means to win. Not like this.

* * *

So very sorry for the lack of updating last week! My lovely Beta Mutilated Gem has been helping with getting these chapters in top shape! Chapter 6 should be out before the end of this week! (this chapter has been updated with edits)

-FN


	6. Truce!

Dib hauled his unconscious cargo back to his home. Who would have thought that Dib would be bringing home an alien not just once, but a second time and still not turn the green invader in? Definitely not Dib self-proclaimed savior of Earth. It was however much easier the second time around. Having prepared for the need for his keys Dib had moved them to his trench coat pocket prior to scooping Zim up. Plus without the hand-cuffs keeping one of their arms attached to each other it was easier to adjust the alien as his smaller body slipped in his arms.

Round lenses were sliding down the bridge of his nose and Dib scrunched his face, trying to push the cursed lenses back up but to no avail. Whatever he was almost home anyways. Rounding the corner Dibs feet quickened pace. He could almost see his front door now. Glancing down at Zim he grunted and shuffled the aliens legs. The fabric was extremely smooth and made Zims clothed figure slippery, probably having a something to do with the fact that it was some weird fancy space-man-fabric that Dib sort of wanted to slap under a microscope and study for a half hour or so.

Quiet clicks and a dull hum emanated from Zims PAK. It was heating up pretty badly too, the high tech machine was hooked over one of Dibs arms and helped to keep Zims upper half from sliding away and falling to the dirt ball he so badly wanted to conquer. The position was probably extremely uncomfortable for Zim, as it caused the wiring that connected the heated machine to Zims back to stretch, pulling at his spine or wherever it was rooted into his body.

The door was right in front of him now. Repeating his actions from the day before but this time with greater ease Dibs free hand fished out the keys and quickly unlocked the door. The door was left slightly ajar as Dib had rushed inside, pushing the thing so it would close but forgetting to put enough force into it. The Professor was not home and for that Dib was glad, means the lab was open for use. Zims booted feet clunked against the stairs as he was dragged down into the basement. Dibs mind wondered where Gaz was as the noise was sure to bother her.

Hefting Zim onto the operating table he assessed the damage done to his body. The aliens appearance seemed fine, though laying on his back on the hard metal slab of a table made his spine arch awkwardly due to the PAK between his shoulders. A bruise had formed purple around one of Zims eyebrows and there was a slight cut on his face, but other than that he was OK. Dib rolled Zim onto his belly and grimaced at the sight of the PAK. A large dent impacted the decive on one side, just under one of the port holes. However at the motion of being rolled over, the largest of compartments flipped open and tendrils of wiring reached out, wriggling as though alive.

"Ah! What the hell Zim?" Dib glared at the alien, expecting him to jump up and attack. However nothing happened aside from the wires wiggling around in a lazy drunken fashion. They eventually got themselves together and braided into a single yet thick cord and slid further out of the PAK. Feeling their way down the table Dib watched in confusion before something clicked. "Do you.. need to recharge? Or something?" Dib could have smacked himself, talking to an unconscious alien and a bunch of wiggling wiring was not how he had planned his Thursday afternoon.

Grabbing a cord connected to one of his dads computer monitors he dragged it over and offered one end to the worm-like cord currently slinking around the operating table. Immediately they took hold, plugging themselves in and then going still. Moments later an ear piercingly familiar voice came from the monitors speakers.

"UGH! Filthy stupid Earth technology! Such inferior mechanics make me want to claw my PAK off!"

"Zim?" Dib stared at the monitor but it was blank. However the voice came again from the speaker and an audio wave appeared on the screen.

"Dib-stink." Dib opened his mouth to ask questions but Zim cut him off before he began. "The Great Zim has a need for your minion-slave qualities. When those FILTHY human stink children attacked Zim they bashed the most precious piece of Zims technology! And have disabled Zims re-activation sequence in the PAK and of all the human slaves on this PITIFUL dirt ball Zim has decided you are the only one worthy of Zims slave-test."

Dib blinked and then chuckled darkly.

Zims audio feed grunted in irritation. "There is nothing funny about this human. Now Zim demands you fix your future Lord and Ruler Master of Earth."

"So... you cant fix it yourself... and until you are repaired you are stuck unconscious?" The statement sounded like a surprised question near the end and Dibs grin grew. "What if I dont fix you? All you can move are those cords! Earth is safe!"

If Zim could have scowled through the audio he would have, even a glare might have done the trick to place fear back into the Dibs mind. However he was at loss for the moment and settled for a battle of words. "Foolish human! Earth is not safe! Zim is still here and with or without Zim the Armada will still come to destroy you all!" Zim would have sneered at the human if he could have. "Yes, and smooth over your filth-planet into a parking-structure-planet."

Dib wanted to laugh at Zims rebuttal, "And what would you do if I dont fix you? You'll be stuck down here forever. Maybe when I'm done studying you I'll present you to the Swollen Eyeballs and then to Mysterious Mysteries and then I'll be the greatest!"

Zims feed remained silent as he pondered his options, none were too bright. Too bad he couldnt get into his self-destruct button. Dib waited eagerly as the invader came up response-less.

"Alright how about this Zim? I'll fix you but we make a deal first."

"Invaders do not make negotiations with the enemy Dib-pig." A couple sparks came from Zims PAK and Zims feed made an odd noise, a gutteral sound with a click or two thrown in. "... Zim could maybe make an exception." His voice sounded strained after that but he recomposed himself and awaited the terms.

Dibs grin had never ceased, for once he held a good hand of cards to play as he wished. "First, you cannot destroy Earth, stop doing that."

"Deal."

"Ah wait there's more."

Zims feed groaned and Dib could practically see the aliens eyeroll. "Improper! How can in this deal you get more than one thing out than Zim? Zim just needs fixing! Dib-stupid only gets one thing out of this deal like Zim!"

Dib shrugged, "Well then I guess you are not interested in getting fixed up then, shame. I guess I'll just start dissecting you now." Dib sighed and turned towards a table, its drawers filled with different tools, waiting for the bluff to be taken.

"... continue with your requests." Zim gritted out. He hated this, every last second, he wanted to destroy the human, rip out his not-squeedly-spooch and smear it all over his face. Rip off his stupid not-antennae. Oh yes that would be painful would it not?

"No more destroying Earth or taking it over, no more experimenting on humans or abducting them. Lastly you have to let me study you and teach me about your species."

Zim sighed, "Fix Zim now. Zim agrees to your dumb Earth requests as Zim does not wish to be presented in pieces to your heads of science."

Dib couldn't help but do a quick victory dance and then at the proposition of getting to see inside Zims PAK eagerly leaned over the table and poked at it. With a hiss of smoke the device split vertically, like a beetles shell and each half opened to either side. Underneath the sleek exterior Dib found that the PAK legs were neatly folded like a bugs wings, serving as additional protection of the delicate circuitry underneath. Once the PAK opened fully the legs, still in compact form, lifted, and stood straight up in their folded shape. Two of the legs were damaged however, and under their dent lie the afflicted machinery.

"Dib-thing."

The human paused in his wonderment. "Ok ok, what do I do?"

"Zims wiring is cut and has repaired itself inefficiently. Zim will be shut down so the Dib can operate." A slim wire reached out from under a mother-board looking piece of machinery and wiggled for attention. Dib assumed it was some wire that needed plugging in and dragged over a mobile computer sat on a cart. The wheels squeaking obnoxiously in protest and the cords powering the device dragged along behind it. Once within reach the PAK wire slid over and split into nearly a hundred smaller hairs, each plugged itself into a different port on the computer. Immediately the clicking and hums stopped and the cording attached to the monitor went limp, unplugging itself and falling to the ground heavily Zims voice silenced for now. The little wires settled in their connections to the computer and pulsed as information was shoved onto the screen.

Dib jumped and glanced over then back to the computer monitor at the sound of the thick cord hitting the labs sterile cement floor. After which lenses flashed back to the task at hand. Several diagrams were being uploaded, which were probably all important and extremely cool. However as he flipped through the images one at a time he noticed the timer in the corner of the screen, the limit had started at around ten minutes or so and made Dib worry. Why was there a time limit? Zim did say it was a test though. Flipping through the twenty or so diagrams that were hastily translated to English from Irken was a nightmare, taking a full two minutes just to get an idea of what he had to do. Apparently this wire had been severed and somehow welded itself to a chip in a different circuit.

Dib grabbed some tools that he hoped would help and set about unplugging the chip. The wire held onto the chip tenaciously, even after being cut free the wire reattached itself. Some sort of self-repair gone haywire. After the fourth successful cut Dib was able to keep the wire from rerouting itself again. Plugging the cording back into place Dib glanced back up at the diagrams. Apparently that wasn't the only thing broken? As Dib flicked through the images in a flash he noticed the timer again his stomach twisted uncomfortably. He'd spent so long wrestling that wire, but how? There was only a minute and a half left. He shrugged, this was the issue Zim had mentioned and Dib fixed it, if the alien had wanted everything fixed he should have brought it up.

Dib hurried to copy the files to a disc before the timer ended. If he knew Zim at all then Dib would be right in his assumption that the alien would definitely not let the human keep information on the PAK.

The computer promptly expolded as the timer ended.

"Ah! What the heck Zim! That was my Dads!" Though Dib did not falter with his newfound information. The CD was slipped into a sleeve pocket and Dib turned to watch as Zims pack shut itself back up. The seam that split the metal vertically was now vanishing to the human eye.

'Re-Activating.'

The electrical pulse was still a surprise however this time Dib was slightly more prepared. Zims body spasmed and after the initial shock was over there were just the remaining sizzles of electricity humming through the aliens clothes. Zim groaned and sat up slowly, wig slid half way off his head as he moved. Gloved claws squeaked as they pushed against the metal table. Zim paused for a moment, debating his options, then promptly moved to Plan C.

"Human! What have you done? Where is Zim?" He patted at his belly, feeling for stitches and lacerations from experiments.

Dib blinked at him, "What? you were literally just talking to me through a monitor, I fixed you just now."

Zims free antennae twitched, "LIES! Zim was ... stolen from his base!" The alien grinned, "Zim remembers nothing of this fixing."

Dib looked back to where he'd left the unplugged chip and forgotten to put it back in. "Whatever, so what does this do?" Dib picked up the chip and inspected it. The wild wire had attached itself to one corner and in the heat of repeated self-repair attempts had melted the chip pretty badly.

Zims antennae perked forward, flicking the wig to the floor before they laid back now flat against his skull. Face screwing up into pure rage and claws curling as he seemed ready to attack. "FOUL STINK BEAST! You dare break the deal we made! You were meant to FIX Zim not sabotage him!"

Dib grinned, "So you do remember? Also this chip is worthless, your PAK melted it while I was fixing you."

Zims mouth opened and then shut, a frown painted unsatisfactorily across his face. "The chip is NOT worthless. It is advanced Irken technology that your filthy human fingers have no business touching!" Zim scooted closer to Dib and the exploded computer, hurriedly snatching up the damaged chip unit.

"Filthy human germy hands touching inside Zim..." Zim muttered under his breath. He twirled the chip over in his claws, antennae twitching and going rigid as fake eyes scanned the device.

Dibs eye twitched as he heard Zims muttering. "So... get out of my house Zim, if you break our truce I'll not only break you but no one will come to fix you next time either."

Dibs hands made a shoo-ing motion at the alien and then he turned to reach for one of the brooms by the emergency cleaning unit. Whenever Zim was around time seemed to fly by and they still had Skool the next day. Not to mention that without having detention regularly, he had not been keeping up on his homework as well as he should have been. Both incidents were caused by Zims irritating presence but at least the detentions gave Dib time to work as well as keep an eye on the alien, being trapped in the same room and all.

Zim glared daggers at Dib and slid off the table, slightly unsteady as his PAK hummed quietly, re-calibrating after the operation. Zim said nothing and hurried out of the lab, booted feet tapping quietly up the stairs. Dib listened as the front door shut and then sighed, running a hand through his hair as he looked around at the mess he'd need to clean up. The bulge of the CD in his pocket however brought back his giddy excitement and with new found vigor began to clean up the mess. Hopefully Professor Membrane wouldn't notice a missing computer plus cart.

* * *

Zim spent his Skool day in a very busy fashion. Disguised eyes glaring daggers, burning holes in everything he looked at. It was fair to say that the invader was not in a good mood and did not want to be bothered with things such as Skool and humans or even hearing what the Earth-monkey Teachers had to say. The morning time had passed quickly and left Zim glaring silently at his slop on a tray at lunch. The other students seemed to have noticed his more than sour bad mood and avoided him like the plague. Except Dib of course, the human near gleefully sat down across from him and happily scooped up a bit of slop and ate it. Zim shuddered as the barely edible food was scooped bit by bit off Dibs tray.

"How do you eat that filth human." Zim glared at his tray, eyes never leaving. Somehow he would need to get Dib to forsake this treaty, but so far no plans were coming to mind.

Dib shrugged, "Its turkey and gravy today. Its a little better than normal since they fired one of the cooks and hired someone better. Where they got the money for it beats me."

Zims eye twitched. He would very much like to beat the Dib. To pieces. And then beat the pieces into dust. Then throw the dust into the humans precious sun. Zim nodded to himself thoroughly enjoying the images his thoughts brought, though it seemed as though he was responding to Dibs words.

"So you haven't been plotting anything evil right?" Dib waved a spork at Zim and the alien wrinkled his face leaning away from it.

"Ugh Irk the smell." Zim hissed and then shook his head, glaring directly at Dibs obese head. "Of course not Stink-Pig. Though you humans never hold up your end of bargaining an Invader is sworn to their word." Zim gagged slightly as Dib ate another spork-ful and then stopped, fiddling with the carton of supposed milk, the top portion being torn open as to drink its' innards.

"Zim however requests that you end this deal."

Dib sputtered milk and coughed, laughing in between hacks. A few students looked over but upon realizing it was just Dib and Zim, returned to their chattering without a second thought.

The bell was due to ring at any moment and Zim glared at Dib hatefully, scooping a spork full of mash and flicking it at Dib before standing suddenly and taking his tray away. The moment it was cleared and set in its stack the bell rang, Zim hurriedly scuttling out the double doors for the gym. He muttered curses in both English and Irken, now his mission would take extra long to complete now, due to this arrangement. Somehow Zim would have to the get upper hand once more.

* * *

Very sorry for the lack of updates! I've many excuses for this though, I tried to update my mac to Sierra and during the installation the files were corrupted and I lost everything on my computer including my plot map for this story, had to take it to bestbuy and get it wiped! Days after that I went to EDC17 and that was bomb af. Now I'm back home and its just work and this fanfic for now so maybe we'll be seeing more frequent updates? Who knows. See you wherever updates are posted~

-FN


	7. GameSlave!

Heat, that is all that seemed to surround them. Like a poisonous miasma from the Planet Snarh had somehow drifted here. However instead of slowly choking its victims to death with a throat closing acid, the heat from the earths sun simply sucked all moisture from an organisms body; even the trees were wilting from it.

Zim panted as he drug himself under the wire grate portion of the agility course. The dirt was filthy and extremely dry, having coated his skin in a thin layer of dust at the slightest movement and kick. They were doing the course in groups of five, somehow he and Dib had placed in the same group and the big headed child was struggling to get through the tire leaping portion to chase the alien. Zim chuckled, antennae hearing the boy grunt and flail as he tripped over the rim of a tire.

Crawling the final distance Zim pushed a leg under himself and immediately got up running. This was nothing compared to Planet Devastis, the planet every Irken went to if they were worthy enough for selection to try for the Irken Elite not to mention the tests they may endure if out of practice for long enough. This was even easier than fighting that simple snack machine Zim had found there. Zim grit his teeth as he grabbed the knotted rope and hurried himself over the wooden wall. Cursed snack machine, its always the little things in life that cause the largest of issues. Zim grunted as he landed, crouching and tucking into a roll to protect his legs from impact damage, his PAK which he had somehow been allowed to keep wearing, not hindering the movement in the slightest. Having worn the life-sustaining unit since his hatching it was second nature to pick a shoulder to tumble with before shoes hit the tarmac and he was up and running once more.

Dib was not having as easy a time as Zim was, not by a long shot; his fleshy human body perspiring greatly as he maneuvered the course. Panting heavily and glasses near too dusty to see through Dib dove under the wire trough and began dragging his sore body through the dust. The ground was rough against his skin and left his elbows and knees with minor scrapes, his soft un-calloused skin flaking away at the friction between flesh and ground. Sweat dripped from his head and the dust turned to a gross mud as it was kicked up from the ground landing against the humans skin; leaving Dib a weird light muddy color as he struggled free of the wiring. Next was the rope-wall.

Tired blistered hands gripped the knotted rope as equally tired arms worked towards hauling the rest of the humans body up and over the wall. Dib was wheezing now, his fingers grasping the top edge of the wall, feet kicking near uselessly beneath him as he heaved his upper half over the well propped vertical boards. Swinging a leg over the wall Dib began his descent. A rather quick one with little support from the rope draped down across the other side to keep him from crashing to the ground.

Zim was waiting at the finish line, another ten yards away. He seemed to be nonchalantly scraping dirt from under his claws to pass the time. The gym teacher was also stood there, timer in hand as she waited for Dib to half-assedly jog over. He did so at a decent pace and promptly fell to the half-dead grass wheezing airily after passing the finish line.

"Next!" The PE teacher shouted, whistle pressing to her lips to give an obnoxious tweet. Apparently Dib had passed the trial within the time limit. Zim chuckled darkly and followed the rest of the group towards the bleachers, Dib trailing along for once without much to say.

Zim glared at the edge of the bleachers that was nearest the Skool, instinctively hating the memory it carried. Splitting from the group he strode over, fake eyes scanning the cement and grass. A large dent was made in one of the support beams presumably where one of the stink-pig children had flung Zims smaller body. Zim hissed a little, having spotted where some of his blood had sprinkled the ground. He would need to come back at night to erase the evidence, lest the Dib take samples and hold that over his alien head as well.

"Whatchya doin' Zim?" Dib tried to glare and sneer at the alien, but his still slowing huff-puff-wheeze made the question fall short of its intended tone.

Zim stiffened, back straightening and shoulders squared. "Zim is observing the 'shade' he has found and has claimed it as Irken property." Immediately he spun about and flopped back into the bit of shaded grass, facing Dib down with a glare that dared him to think about entering Zims shaded spot.

"Whaaat?" Dib whined, knowing too well that if he came closer he would inevitably start a fight. The human huffed, some sweat dripping from his chin and Dib did exactly what the glare told him not to, moved to sit in the shade. Zim hissed and quickly struck out with a tennis-shoe'd foot, the blow landing itself in Dibs squishy organ sack and sending said stink-beast rolling back into the glaring heat of the sun.

"Ack! The the heck Zim?" Dib glared nastily at Zim, his face red with heat and sweat.

The gym teacher glanced over briefly and then grunted, turning back to the students that were completing the final leg of the course. She didn't care, as long as whatever injuries the two delinquents made on each other could be blamed on the course difficulty then she didn't have any paperwork under her responsibility.

The whistle blew as the final group was sent to their rounds, Zim glanced over and Dib used this moment to slide back into the shade. Zim grunted and raised a mighty Irken fist but was cut off as Dib's own clenched hand jabbed into his side.

"HNN! My squeedlyspooch.." Zim keeled over for a moment, clutching his side. Dib merely grinned and got comfortable in the meager shade the bleachers provided.

"Didn't have to be like this. Could have just let me sit here." Dib pulled his glasses off and the hem of his dusty shirt up, wiping the sweat from his brow and then returning the lenses to their rightful place. Zim sat up and grumbled, glaring daggers and hissing in a very alien-like manner at his arch nemesis.

"Zim did not want the pig-smelly near him." Zim grunted, rubbing his side once more before reluctantly allowing part of his shade to be used. Across the way a student, Gretchen, stumbled over the tire rims much like Dib had and planted herself awkwardly on the burning hot rubber rings. She yelled and struggled to her feet.

Zim chuckled darkly, with how immobile these humans were, all he needed to do was place these 'tires' across the globe and the whole of the human race would be struggling to get anywhere.

"Hey!"

Zims eyes flicked to Dib and then back to the agility course.

"Zim was not planning to take over the world silly Dib-filthy." Zim crossed his legs and propped his head up with a hand on his chin, elbow resting atop one knee. His free arm gestured lazily. "Zim was... amused by your species vast capabilities." Zim snickered.

Dib wanted to laugh a little, it was true, most of the human race sucked at anything remotely physical. But this was his enemy, and no matter how good the sarcasm or true the instance; he couldn't give in and make fun of the humans, that would be like making fun of himself too. Instead Dib glowered at him.

"Remember our deal alien, no taking over the world, I'll break your weird back pack and watch you die."

Zim rolled his eyes but went quiet, the only thing disrupting his silence were the occasional insane giggle at a fellow classmates failures.

* * *

Dib sighed, having entered the slightly air-conditioned Skool building and changed, he was fully ready to go home and get clean. Amber eyes glanced to the showers and he shuddered. No way would anyone dare use those facilities, they hadnt been cleaned since who knew when. Shouldering his backpack he grimaced at the feel of it against his grimy feeling back. Green passed by and he eyed Zim as he left the changing room. Dib always wondered how the alien changed so quickly, Barely a flash of green and a blur of fabric before the clothes were switched. It was always weird to see him in the very much 90s looking attire, the switch back to his regular outlandish clothes righted the oddity and the day could progress.. Short shorts and a very much unappealing white tee was just too much. Dibs gaze turned to a glare and he strode after the invader.

The bell rang as he exited, the gym teacher leaning against a wall in the hallway, flipping through a clipboard of papers grumbling to students about washing their uniforms before returning to Skool on Monday. It was Friday though so Dib wouldn't be needing to worry about gym clothes until Sunday at the latest. The bundle of smelly clothes bundled up in a plastic shopping bag and crinkled as it swung from his fist. Zims gym clothes had vanished and he seemed carefree as he exited the Skool, nothing but his hands in his pink dress shirt pockets and the silver bulb of a PAK.

Once outside Dib stepped to one side of the doors, letting the surge of students escape the building. He had to wait for Gaz anyways, not to mention getting caught up in the wave would surely end up with a few more bruises he didnt want to deal with. Scanning the crowd for Zim, and just an eye out for his sister Dib grinned as he found the alien parked at the foot of a tree, some mechanical dookie in his alien claws. A blue light atop the device blinked and Zim squinted at it angrily before a grin spread across his face. Immediately he was tapping away at whatever it was with a dastardly look on his face.

A shove nearly pushed Dib over the railing. "Quit staring at him you weirdo."

Dib caught himself and turned around. Gaz didnt break stride after shouldering her sibling, the GameSlave in her pale fingers blipping as she hammered at the buttons with precision. Dib glanced over to Zim once more, his dog having shown up and was waving sporadically at the other students while the alien looked glum about the situation. The dog was leashed and Dib was grateful for that, its green fur and bulging eyes were enough to freak out some of the kids around. Not to mention it was standing on two legs and waving of all things. However Dib knew the secret, that was no earth-dog, it was a robot minion in disguise!

"Nice 'dog' Zim!" Dib cackled and hurried after Gaz, pulling out his handy dandy camera from his coat and snapping a picture of the odd scene.

Zim grunted and rolled his eyes at the Dib-beast. He fiddled with the leash for a moment, watching as his enemy and its sibling-unit exited the Skool grounds. Shoulders back and spine straightened Zim began walking at an even yet fast pace, boots hurrying along the heated sidewalk. The leash went taught and Zim gave it a firm tug.

"GIR!"

The robot ignored its master in favor of being drug along the ground for a moment before springing up on two legs a split second later and happily bouncing ahead. Though the robot had no idea which way they were headed and was easily distracted, leaving him to dart back and forth from one human to a butterfly going by then back to something else equally as distracting. A group of girls giggled and pointed at GIR, eying Zim strangely.

"I like these people mastur! They wanna pet mah doggy ears!" GIR waved at one of the female students who eyed the green creature oddly, then glanced up at Zim. The alien glanced over, noticing the dirt encrusted human to be one from his class. The one with nasty tooth issues so bad of which they required the metal bracings of strangness.

"Next time GIR. We have a mission to complete." Zim marched past and GIR pulled weakly towards Gretchen before hopping along.

"Oh! A squirrel! Can I be a squirrel next time?"

"No GIR, youre a normal Earth dog." Zim turned to follow after the Dib and his sibling creature, GIR bouncing along the way.

"What about a squirrel-dog? I seen those on the tv!" The GIR unit continued to babble on about the shows it had been watching while Zim was at Skool. "And there's this new show! But I like the Angry Monkey show more And-"

Zim wanted to rip his antennae out. However he was so close to his goal and decided to stay the course. Zim followed Dib and Gaz to their house and casually sent the little disguised robot up to their door to bother them. GIR happily rung the door bell twenty six times before an infuriated Gaz opened the door. A boot was aimed for the robots head but GIR had already darted inside, running beneath the humans legs.

"WHEEEEEEE HEEEEHEEE HEEEE! I'm running!"

Dib had been in the kitchen at the time, having just cracked a cold one for himself. GIR seeming to have a sixth sense for mess creation sped off into the kitchen and tackled the poop cola, half knocking it to the floor half grabbing it and running in circles on the kitchen floor.

The alien took his time with his plan, GIR would keep them distracted for a few minutes at the very least. Having slipped into the humans back yard he easily scaled the wall to an open window. Sliding inside he glanced about briefly. Sketchy plushies and a few gamer posters confirmed he was not in the Dibs room. Lightly stepping out into the hall way Zim could hear the commotion downstairs.

GIR had latched himself to one of the ceiling fan blades and was screaming as he spun in circles soda spewing everywhere. Gaz, being the evilest creature on the planet aside from Mrs. Bitters, simply cranked up the speed and watched with distorted pleasure as the green dog became a blur of screaming noise.

Dibs room had been easy to sniff out, the door swung open with a slight push as it was slightly ajar. Immediately he set to work. Placing a few Vortian quality cameras here and there before slinking down the hall way, one camera at the end, another at the top of the stairs. Zim paused as he passed the bathroom. Giving a shrug he placed one inside there as well.

Satisfied with his work Zim hurried back out the window, knowing GIR's shenanigans wouldn't hold out much longer. Quick as a flash Zim was at the Membranes door, knocking and ringing the door bell. It was then that Dib opened the door and glared nastily at him.

"What the heck Zim! Your dog just trashed my living room!"

Zim leaned over to pek inside and shuddered at the sight. The cola had been shaken so much that it spewed everywhere, coating sections of the walls, floor and even a bit of the ceiling in frothy delicious goo.

Mission goo.

Zim shrugged nonchalantly. "This is what earth dogs do yes? He is a normal human earth dog after all, just 'trashing' a room of living.." Zim was confused for a moment, as there didn't seem to be much garbage in the living room during his glance. Usually GIR created a vast wasteland of trash during his mess-making.

Dib squinted at him, "That... doesn't really make sense. Dogs don't even come in green- Anyways get your space-mutt out before I call animal control on it."

Zim shouldered past Dib and GIRs pupils drifted over, ears perked as he was caught by surprise. He was sucking on the head of the professor membrane bust statue, drool having coated a good portion of it. Amidst the mess stood Gaz, shaking with silent fury. The alien was confused at first and Dib was slowly backing away into the kitchen, sensing the rage.

In her hands: a broken GameSlave.

The shaking stilled as she lowered her head. "Zim. Your dog has BROKEN my GameSlave. Do you know how long it will take me to get a new one?"

Zim felt his antennae wilt under his wig, fake eyes flicked around the room shiftily. GIR was still licking and slobbering on the membrane stand, paying no attention to his master like usual.

"My dad only comes home once a month if we're lucky and once a YEAR for a family night." Her shaking returned and she looked up, eyes wide with fury. "Your dog broke it! If you don't replace it I will kill you!"

Zim wanted to rebut, tell her off for yelling at him and blame all the actions on GIR, like normal. However if all she wanted was a stupid device of amusement then it would be easy to get another one and the situation would be diffused. However he could always try to pin it on someone else..

Zim shrugged, "Zim had nothing do with the breaking of the device. Also why did your older sibling unit the Dib not protect your game from a completely normal earth dog?" Zim walked around the couch and picked GIR up by his leash, the robot flailing his little limbs as he was suddenly airborne. He slung GIR over a shoulder and began making his way to leave. "Zim should not be the one to replace it but your big-headed Dib-sibling. Yes. Definitely his fault."

"Hey! My head is not big!"

Gaz seemed to think about it and then turned her fury from the alien to her brother. "This is your fault Dib."

"What? I didn't even do anything? You know that Gaz!"

She twitched, Zim was tempted to stay and watch the fight play out, but not wanting to get caught in the cross-fire he simple walked outside, leaving the door open as he went.

"It IS your fault Dib." She shook with the fury of a Thousand Hells. "If you weren't so obsessed with that freak he wouldn't have had any reason to come over, or send his dog or whatever! You just cant let it go can you?! Now my game is broken and its All. Your. Fault!"

Dib raised an arm to block the debris of Gaz's GameSlave, the pieces having been hurtled at him he grunted as a chunk hit his head. Dib rolled his eyes and sighed, he and Zim would just have to fight about this later. "Fine! I'll get you a new one!"

"By tonight! Or else I will make you wish you'd never been born!"

"Yeah yeah." Dib looked around, the house was a disaster now, how did Zim even put up with that robot? It was only in their living room for five minutes, those two lived in the same house. Unless it was kept outside. Dib mulled the thought over, planning a new way to get inside Zims base.

Pulling out a robot his dad had created for cleaning he turned the creation on and the machine set about fixing up the mess. His body now sticky and gross from the PE class an now the dog-soda explosion. He went upstairs briefly to shower and change. After doing so Dib grabbed another poop cola from the fridge and left, heading for Zims house to settle their newest dispute.

* * *

There you have it. Two chapters in a day. My beta Mutilated Gem is busy so I did my best to edit these. Anyways, shout out to Turkey for the most visitors! Wow! Much Read. US and Germany tied at 9 visitors each so that's pretty shwifty! Till next time! R&R

-FN


	8. Lekku!

Zim had made it home quickly, having dropped GIR mid way as the robot insisted on thrashing until it was on the ground again. Invader issue boots thumping up the path to his front door with purpose Zim walked inside, near chucking GIR into the building. He shut the door, pausing briefly when the door was only a crack wide to peer around suspiciously and then shut the panel the rest of the way.

GIR recovered quickly from his brief flight into the kitchen and ran back over to Zim, feet squeaking adorably as he stepped. "YAAAY! GIR did good? I made a huuuuuuge mess at the big headed boys house!"

Zim eyed the robot and then patted it between its 'ears.' "Yes GIR, you did good." Zim pulled something from his PAK and dangled it above the robot. Dropping the pink item GIR unzipped his costumed head and caught the thing.

"Mah piggy!" GIR however did not leave screaming just yet and stared at his Master, tongue sticking out dumbly.

Zim sighed and shoved a hand into his pocket, fishing out a couple dollars, a paperclip and some coins. GIR held out a hand and squee'd as he received the bit of money. "Yaaayyy! I'm gonna get tacos!" He turned to the piggy plush and grinned the dog hood being pulled back on and zipped. "Lets go pig!"

Now GIR made his leave, bursting out the door that had just closed, leash trailing behind him and the piggy held above his head as he ran, screaming into the sunset. Zim glared at the offending life giving star and slammed the door shut. Cursed planet, soon it would be doomed. Zim sighed, slipping off his wig and pulling out his contacts. The windows were shut tight and tinted so he wasn't too worried about anyone seeing him. Rubbing a now lense-free eye Zim walked through his kitchen and over to the trashcan that would take him down to his labs.

The computer wordlessly shot its Master down, far too quickly than it should have been and Zim fought the urge to scream the whole way down. Once at the bottom Zim slammed into the elevator floor and stumbled out, antennae wobbling as he struggled to correct his balance. "Computer! Recalibrate yourself! You could have killed Zim! Your Master in case your memory banks have wiped themselves!" Antennae were perked forward, stiff and angry.

The computer sighed, sounding as un-enthused as ever before responding with a droll tone, "Recalibrating systems."

A low whoom of power shutting down echoed through the laboratory as the computer turned off functions one by one in order to reset the systems to factory setting. The back up generators hummed as they kept minimum functions running. One of which being Zims computer screen and some simple actions, such as connecting to the cameras he had placed about the Dib-humans room and upper house level. Without the computer being fully active the memory banks were not recording data, however Zim was fine with this, instead he simply wanted to make sure everything had connected properly. A portion of the screen split into six smaller squares, three in the hall, one in the bathroom and two in the Dibs room at different angles as such to see the whole space without blind spots.

Satisfied with the connection he shut it off, having not seen Dib it made his spooch churn uncomfortably for a moment. The Dib was not home so he had to be out somewhere. Zim's antennae quivered as he walked to the elevator, the feeling that the human was nearby putting him on edge. Stepping inside he waited for the walls to light up, they did but at a much dimmer setting and the elevator slowly slid back up to the ground floor. The generators were doing their best however it wasn't enough for Zim and soon he was grumbling angrily about the whole mess of it all.

Once high enough the alien merely crawled out of the trash can, PAK legs pushing him up a fair distance as he was fed up with waiting. The pointed tips of his PAK legs hooked over the rim of the can and he peered around momentarily, eternally suspicious of the house. A red eye squinted and the other opened wide in his traditional peeved expression. The window was open. Zim's antennae flicked, he was sure it was closed earlier... perhaps GIR had something to do with it? Boots thumped softly against the flooring as he walked over and slid the window shut. He stared outside for a moment, noticing the gnomes were inoperable during the system recalibration.

It was in this moment that a knock sounded at his door.

Zim jumped and cursed himself for being so tense. Slipping on his disguise in record time Zim opened the door a crack, immediately glaring at the intruder.

"Dib-stink."

"Alien." Dib shrugged and casually slipped his boot in the jam of the door. "So I noticed your security system is out of whack. Really tempted me to just bust inside and prove to the world that you're an alien."

Zim growled slightly eyes narrowing. He glanced down at the boot and gave the door an experimental push, but the boot held fast and Zim found himself momentarily tied between opening the door wider to try a stronger slam and just pushing a little harder to see if the human would get the message. Fake eyes flicked back up to the Dibs face. "Zim is not stupid enough to think this was your only reason for interrupting his very important... Zim time."

Dib shrugged again more exaggeratedly eyes rolling with the motion, still subtly shoving his boot in a little further. "Well you see Zim. Your stupid robot dog thing broke my sisters game and you're still responsible for it. Even though you somehow brainwashed her to think I should be the one to replace it." Dib jammed a knee against the door, pushing it open further. Zim hissed, eyes widening in anger as the human dared to try and force his way inside. PAK legs rooted themselves into the flooring behind him, trying to slice the human in half via shutting the door on him.

A fist connected with Zim's jaw and the alien stumbled back holding his face and screeching madly PAK legs retreating for the moment. "Why are you here! Leave Zim alone! Zim has already agreed to your filthy double-crossing deal of stupid!" Zim wanted to grab at his antennae, wanted to grab Dib by the throat and strangle him to death, wanted to pummel the human to pieces just for stepping inside Zims perfectly clean germ free base. Which now was not germ free. Not to mention the human had the gall to swing first? What was the universe coming to? Zim shook in anger, swearing to himself as he swore to Irk he could see the bacteria dripping off the disgusting humans body.

"You need to get Gaz a new game so she'll leave me alone you green freak!" Dib wanted to punch the alien again. It felt good, especially when Zim was too riled up with whatever he was going through to swing back.

Zim sneered his jaw blossoming to a light shade of purple, a gloved hand still rubbing the spot gently. "Ah poor Dib-stink cant manage to replace his sister-units toy? Pitiful Human!" Zim's sneer faded into a cocky grin and he stepped towards the slightly taller Dib, spine straight and shoulders back, eyes staring with hatred and defiance. "How about this Dib-stupid? You and I will duel and whomever loses will be the one to replace the useless device."

Dib blinked. "So a fight? haha 'duel' this isn't a game of cards or whatever Zim, what era of humans have you been studying even?"

Zims fist planted itself in the humans stomach causing him to keel over and back away, holding the afflicted area. "ZIM HAS BEEN STUDYING THE CORRECT EEEER-A MOST DEFINITELY! Zim will not stand to be fun made of either!"

Dib chuckled, and within moments the two were tussling in the aliens living room. With distance Zim had the leverage of his PAK legs, and in close quarters had his years of close combat training. Dib on the other claw had been learning some advanced karate in his spare time. Not to mention before Zim had even landed his ship, Dib had been attending regular self-defense classes due to his fathers near constant absence. Irken close combat was much different from Earthen technique, there were more claw oriented jabs than the regular brute force of fists, as well as kicks aimed at ones face and mid section with the help of PAK legs for balance. Dib wavered for a moment, trying to swipe the aliens legs out from under him only for Zim to dart through the open space, due to his smaller size and ended up behind the human.

The tussle moved to the floor from there, Zim having jumped the humans back and was trying to strangle him from behind. Dib yelled, arms trying to get the fiend off his back. The two fell to the floor, Dib on top of Zim and crushing the air from the aliens body. Zim grunted, his PAK having been hammered into the ground during the fall, pushing the cording that connected him and his PAK unit. The cord wove through his body uncomfortably especially when slammed against the ground. However years upon years of training taught him to roll to the side as Dib brought a fist down at him, the blow missing just barely. Irken claws were at Dibs throat and the human used his advantageously long arms to grab Zims face and push him down onto the floor. Zim hissed as the filthy human hand touched his face. Wig sliding off his head Zims lekku perked forward, stiff and in full display of his fury. Dib grinned, his free hand promptly snagging one in his grasp ready to yank on the appendage.

The fight ended immediately as the alien went deathly still. Zim swore his spooch-heart-portion had stopped just as his breathing had.

Dib sensed Zims sudden stillness and looked down at him. A contact had fallen out at some point during their fight, the tinging pinkpurple of a forming bruise leading him to believe a punch had knocked it out. Thin green lids blinked revealing a single large round magenta eye paired with the uncharacteristically fake contact hiding the other eye.

"Human. Release Zims lekku." It was weird. How quiet and small Zim sounded. The phrase was still an order, but distinctly lacked the unsurpressed alien rage Zim carried inside him.

Dib panted, catching his breath, he felt the antennae twitch in his grasp and he tightened his grip slightly. Zims mouth dropped open and he hissed softly face twisting into one that was trying to hide pain but failing miserably.

"Get my sister a new GameSlave 3 or I'll snap this antennae."

"Zim will get the GameSlave then."

Dib blinked and then slowly released the black twiggy thing. "Oh... K."

He was shell-shocked. Zim had agreed without missing a beat, instant co-operation. Zim shoved Dib off of himself and ran a gloved hand over his lekku, smoothing them down. However the one Dib had grabbed now looked slightly bent and frazzled. Zim remained on the floor, a seething glare burning holes in Dibs head.

"It is Zims lekku you foolish human. Use beyond your disgusting human brain-meat understanding." Zim snarled at Dib as the human stood. Though sitting momentarily defeated the Irken elite inside Zim took great pleasure in spotting the injuries he had placed on the fragile human. From a bruise forming on pale skin just over his eyebrow and spreading across one cheek to the bleeding claw marks he had left on the boys bruising throat and collarbone. Not to mention the pain he was sure to be feeling in his disgustingly weak human organ sack of a belly.

Dib shrugged, "Whatever alien. Just get that game for my sister by tonight! I won your dumb fight fair and square." Dib rubbed at his face a little, half hiding his wince at touching the swelling bruise.

Zim muttered something, the noises and pronunciation unfamiliar to Dib so he assumed it was Zims native language. Arc or something? Dib shrugged, he'd study it off of the pictures he saved from Zims PAK when he got home. It wasn't like Zim was going to volunteer the information now that he'd lost a little fight.

Zim glared at Dib and then stood, albeit a tad shakily and began shoving Dib towards the door. "Out you misery bringing human creature!"

Dib let himself be pushed, the claws pricking through his clothes akin to the spurs dug into a horses flank, urging the human to move. Once the Dib was outside Zim slammed the door with all his strength, the frame of the house shaking slightly.

Dib sighed and then grinned, hearing Zim screaming his frustrations out made the kids' evening instantly brighter and Dib set course back to his home expecting there to be a brand new GameSlave3 for his little sister by the end of the night.

* * *

Night seemed to come all too quickly for the Membrane household. Dib had insisted that Zim would be replacing Gaz's game, though she still seemed persistent that it was all Dibs fault Gaz didnt really care, as long as she got a replacement all would be right in the world. Dib was up at his computer, a fat notebook to one side of his computer keyboard, Irken symbols copied so sloppily that if Dib were of Irk he would have been terminated immediately. however the human did not know this and instead kept studying the images he had saved from fixing Zim's PAK. Translation was slow and hard, it took forever just to figure out what one word meant, not to mention the hieroglyphs were bouncing around the screen as the humans eyes tired of screen to book to screen staring.

So far he had figured out what the Irken symbols for their PAK translated to English was, as well as a few pieces of the inner machinery. Other than that he was pretty much right where he started, though in square two. He was very excited however as there was an entire document dictating the current status and functions of Zims PAK. Once he got a hold of the key to translate everything he would learn more than he ever thought he would about.. something! Maybe how the PAK worked? Or how it was made? What it did to Zims body and how he controlled those leg things? Dibs mind spun briefly as he near drooled over the potential information held in the image

What if Dib could make a PAK for humans, that excelled their life expectancy? Or enabled humans to travel through space without much need for a suit? Heck even getting an extra pair of metal spiked legs for agility would be a major advancement in the humans level of technology! Dib daydreamed for a moment, of all the things he would do if he could jump around the city with PAK legs to carry him. The jets that would come out of nowhere to propel him through space. Going to other planets and investigating them for life or cultivation.

A quiet but irate tapping against Dibs round window pulled him from his musings. Spinning in his swivel chair Dib nearly jumped in fright at the sight of Zim at his window, two PAK legs hooked onto the roofing and two beneath him to keep steady.

Dib quickly closed the files and flipped his notebook shut. If Zim found out about all this he'd probably destroy it, and Dib really didn't want that. The tapping increased in speed and Zim was looking around suddenly. Dib paused right before opening the window before a droplet of water landed against the pane.

Too bad he couldn't just let Zim melt outside.

Zim forced the window the rest of the way open once Dib unlocked it and started lifting. Tumbling inside Zim wheezed, a couple spots on his skin sizzling at the liquid contact. A box was chucked at Dibs face and Zim immediately began yelling.

"Stupid Dib-monkey! Did you not see that Zim was outside?! And that your planets cursed RAIN was attacking Zim?!" Zims wheezing groans of pain ended as soon as the sizzling did and he stood straight.

"Damn you actually got it? Sweet! Though I really wanted to cut you up, that would've been cool too." Dib shrugged and tossed the GameSlave3 box onto his bed and shut his window. The wind outside had picked up and rain was falling steadily.

"You will never get inside of Zim, Dib." Zim glared hatefully at him, then with a curled upper lip wrinkled his face in disgust at the outside worlds current status of wet.

Dib blinked at Zim his mind briefly going to places he really didnt want to go, "Damn you really need to work on speaking properly. No wonder you're failing English Class."

"Zim has downloaded all of your pathetic Earth languages. There is no need for such stoopid methods of training in your Skool." The alien harrumfed and stepped towards the window, seeming to debate on making a break for his home through the falling acid.

"Whatever, I'll get this to Gaz so before she comes in here and kills me."

"But that would be ideal human, would it not?" Zim grinned a little at the imagery that popped up.

"She'd probably murder you too... idiot."

Zim ignored the comment and Dib walked away, returning moments after dropping off the box in Gaz's room. Dib seemed briefly surprised that the alien hadn't left already, but the rain had Zim glowering out the window instead. Dib stared at him, he really wanted Zim to leave, that way he could get back to having fun and translating the aliens language.

Zim turned suddenly, glaring at Dib. "What human. Zim wants to be here less than the Dib wants Zim to be here. Stop your human eyes from staring at the Glorious Zim."

A light went off in Dibs head and he grinned, moving to sit on his bed. A five fingered hand patted the space next to him and Zim glanced over briefly before resuming his glowering out the window pane.

"Well, since the rain isn't going to let up. And we do have that deal, you need to teach me about your species."

Zims antennae twitched under the wig at that and Dib had to keep from jumping up to point at it. "Zim has no need to divulge Irken secrets."

"Nah not your guys' secrets... just stuff about your species. Like why don't your eyes have pupils and how many toes you have."

Zim turned his head to look at Dib with a bewildered and disgusted expression. "You will not be touching the Mighty Invader Zims toes."

Dib shrugged, this time bringing his arms and hands into the motion. "See? You got toes? What does a spooch do? Why is your skin green and not.. I don't know, orange or something? Little stuff. Besides we made a deal Zim." Dibs voice went from curious to hardened at the last utterance.

Zim glanced back outside briefly. The rain wasn't going to let up for at least an hour, so unless he wanted to try reaching GIR to bring the voot or die melting in the rain he would have to find something else to entertain himself. Zim warily moved closer to the bed, sitting at the furthest corner from the Dib.

"Fine." Zim pondered for a moment, wondering if he should volunteer to answer the previous spontaneous questions. But at the thought of what the Dib had already mention Zim decided against it, before looking over to Dib and with an irritated expression waiting for the human to start.

"So how many toes do you have?"

"Ugh... filthy odd humans...

* * *

Gah I cant stop writing this! Btw this is where these two start becoming frenemies. Like I mentioned in earlier chapters I will do my very best to keep them as in character possible. Much love! Mutilated Gem is still out but I've gone over this chapter a few times and hopefully its all good. Also much love for Zela Night, my only reviewer~

-FN


	9. Last Day!

One boot pressed to the heel of the other and within moments there was an alien foot in Dibs room. Well there were alien feet anyways but now Zims boot was off and the three pronged thing was visible to the world of Dibs room. Dib was staring at the intriguing appendage, a thin sock type fabric was covering the limb, however they were sort of toe socks, as each of the three digits had its own little slot. Zim stuck his leg straight out, wiggling the toe claws a little bit. He eyed the human cautiously, the Dib looked so interested Zim was afraid he would try to touch the precious Zim foot. Not that Zim would have been injured, it was just abhorrent that the Dib might touch his foot, who knew where those hands had been?

Zim slid the boot back on and relished in the safe confines of the space-leather. Dib didn't seem to be happy about the foot going back into hiding but let it go and instead moved onto the next thing that popped to his pathetic brain-meats.

"What about your hands? I want to see." Dib scooted closer to Zim and the alien stiffened but obliged holding out one gloved hand. Dib grabbed it and pulled it closer causing Zim to hiss in displeasure but other than that he did nothing. Dib poked at Zims gloved fingertips, the glove was pretty sharp, probably from whatever nails Zim had underneath maybe? Dib pulled at the glove and Zim glared at him taking his hand back.

Zim pulled off his own glove, revealing a green wrist and hand at the end of a magenta striped sleeve. Reluctantly Zim resumed letting the human explore the limb.

Dibs eyes were wide with fascination, holding Zims hand and turning it this way and that. Watching how the tendons moved beneath the skin. Dib paused as he stared at Zims nails no, claws rather. They were short but thick and pointed, sort of arranged like a human fingernail in relation to the flesh-to-nail portion. But the fingers were thin to accompany the smaller palm and hand that it was an easy sight for someone to pass over. Not Dib though, his amber eyes were fixed on the alien, nothing in his mind but studying the semi-willing extraterrestrial. _Soft_ , the thought passed through his mind as he let his fingers drag across Zims palm for a moment. Did Zim use some kind of weird alien lotion? Dib chuckled a little and Zims eye twitched, suddenly wanting his hand back.

After fiddling with Zims fingers and their joints that were placed slightly different than a humans Dib released Zims hand. Immediately Zim pulled out an odd white bar and began rubbing it against the hand, a slight white puff of something coming off the contact between Irken skin and the cleansing chalk. After Zim was satisfied he slid the glove back on.

"What does the human wish to know next?" Zim was bored, Dib could tell. After all if Zim ws forced to study his own species he would probably be fighting to get out of it. However Dib was no Irken, and merely turned to the next topic of Zims physique.

"Your eyes? Or your antennae maybe?"

Zim stiffened. "Insolent human. They are Zims lekku and no, you will not be touching them ever again."

Dib sighed, apparently Zim was still butt-hurt over losing the fight earlier. "Well let me see your weird eyes then."

Zim rolled his eyes, the fake contacts giving the motion purpose before he reached up and popped each contact out. He blinked a little, the relief from removing such scratchy lenses was immediate and he rubbed one to help distract the contact memory.

Dib was suddenly in his face, staring at him through those weird lenses of sight. Though with Dib being near-sighted he pulled his glasses off to get a better, clearer view of the aliens face.

Immediately uncomfortable with their closeness Zim leaned back, only for Dib to grab his shoulder to keep the alien still. Zim could see how grotesquely primitive Dibs human eyes were. His own vision was simply too perfect to not notice. The whites of the humans eyes, the ring of color, those weird black dots in the center of it all that if Zim stared long enough, he could see that the black dots would grow and contract like some weird machine.

"So how do your eyes work? You don't have any pupils but like, you have that glisten that makes me think you're looking one way or another."

Pulled out of his musings of the human race Zim hummed for a moment in thought. "Well Zim supposes that on your planet his eyes are most similar to... your creepy-crawlie bug organisms." Zim made little motions with his hands as he mentioned their creepy-crawly-ness. "The eye has many.. pupils? uh.. Zim doesnt want to tell you! Agh!" The glisten moved and the hairless green eyebrows furrowed in a glare.

Dib shrugged, "So you got fly eyeballs? Cool. So what colors do you see? Or are your eyes no superior to a humans other than being all buggy." Dib teased and Zim made a face as the humans breath passed by Zims face.

"Zim no longer wishes to educate the simple Dib mind."

"What? I was just teasing you Zim. Jeez you're so sensitive."

Zim glared, a fist forming in his hand, wanting to punch the Dib in the eyes, ask him how his vision was then. What colors do you see? Zim grinned evilly and chuckled. "Zim sees in all colors of the spectrum, more than your pathetic human eyes could ever behold. Even in the dark Zim sees clear as your human eyes do in day."

Dib ignored the evil chuckle in favor of staring into the magenta eyes a little longer before reaching up and grabbing Zims wig. Green claws grabbed Dibs hand and pushed it away, though Dibs hand held fast and the disguise was fully removed. Antennae perked up and then lowered in irritation. The left one still not as perfect as the right but had slightly improved its straight posture.

"Zim will not let the Dib touch his lekku."

"C'mon Zim! I'm sorry for grabbing it in our fight!" Dib pleaded for a moment. "Lemme just look? And you gotta tell me about them too."

Zim glared at Dib, mind flashing to when he had 'lost' in their scrap. "Merely because you grabbed Zims lekku does not mean you won our little battle! Such a move is considered a low blow in your human terms." The thin black appendages flicked up in anger, Dibs eyes following their movements.

"So what do they do then? If they are so important." Dib moved his hand from Zims shoulder and reached up to touch one of the antennae. However his fingers would never reach those intriguing black appandages.

Zim flicked them flat against his head in annoyance leaning away and pushing at Dibs arm. "They are for hearing, smelling and sensing movement. Now stop trying to touch them! They are extremely delicate and sensitive and your clumsy human hands have already damaged one!"

Dib let up, though vowing to himself that next time he had the chance he would definitely touch them. "Jeez Zim its not like I knew."

Zim eyed the Dib and then looked away angrily. Lekku perked suddenly and Zim stood, placing his contacts back on and sliding on his wig. "Do not call upon Zim like that again." Zim glared at Dib a little more and then pushed the window open. Revealing to Dib what the antennae had noticed and Dibs ears had not. The rain had stopped.

"Well if you don't blame be for stuff like that then maybe I won't have to." Dib watched as Zim slid a leg over the window sill, PAK legs sliding out from their compartments to swiftly carry the alien outside without touching the now wet surface of earth. As soon as Zim was gone Dib stood, walking over to peer out into the darkness before sliding the window shut.

Dib turned back to flop on his bed, his back hit the sheets and he jumped in shock, the squeak of leather having startled him. Rolling to one side he found that Zim had forgotten to replace his gloves on his body. He stared briefly before picking them up and adding them to his collection of Zim artifacts. More to study later.

* * *

This was it, the final stretch. Dib walked to Skool with his sister, an almost relieved posture set to his body. Gaz had a brand spanking new GameSlave and was in her own world, blissfully unaware of Dibs glee. The end of the Skool year. Eighth grade was finished and if the students did everything right today, they would graduate, attend their weird little celebration and move up to Hi-Skool. Dibs glee was however short lived as he spotted Zim, the glee melted into a weird queasy feeling.

He had the upper hand for now, though he really didnt see why Zim was holding to their truce. The alien didnt need to hold himself to their little deal, but Dib was still in shock that Zim hadnt done a thing about it. As Dib walked onto the Skool grounds Zim was approached by a couple girls and the alien made a face of clear discomfort. His mouth moved and Dib assumed he said something weird to chase them away. It worked because the two left, though giggling brightly.

Dib glanced around, everyone was more dressed up than usual, even Gretchen was doing her best to hide her unsightly braced teeth. Smacky and Torque were dressed up as well. Dib glanced down at himself, regular grey shirt with a drab smiley face, black pants, boots and trench coat. Whatever, its not like Zim had changed in appearance either.

Dib jumped a little as Zim suddenly appeared by his side, announcing himself by complaining loudly into Dibs ear.

"These humans are so gross and smelly, It relieves Zim that this will be the final day of our Skool year." Zim buffed his gloved claws on his shirt, eyes wandering about lazily as they both walked down the busy corridors to their respective lockers. "They wear these icky smells, all of these humans..."

"Well its probably perfume and its because today is the last day Zim. Then summer is gonna hit and it'll be too hot to run the Skool." Dib shrugged off his backpack, his locker was mostly empty as he had returned most all of his books to their respective teachers and his larger notebooks were already taken back home. Now it was just loose papers and eraser bits at the bottom of the locker.

Zims locker was further away so the alien simply shrugged after Dib stopped and kept walking, their conversation cut off for now. "See you in class Dib-stink," were Zims departing words and his booted feet clicked around the corner.

Dib hurried to cram what he thought he would need into his back pack and at the same time was shoving other uneccesary things back into the locker. Soon enough the bell was ringing and Dib was hurrying towards the door. Stepping in with a sigh of relief as the bell had just stopped ringing the moment he was inside; Dib glanced about the room. Half of the class wasn't there yet, presumably either playing hookey or just late in the halls. The end of the year always brought out the hooligan care-free people who no longer gave a shit about coming to class on time for some reason.

Dib shrugged and sat at his desk, Zim was at his and Mrs. Bitters was standing in front of the chalk board.

"Well, some of you students dont appreciate the fact that your education here is free. Those of you that were here on time are slightly less doomed than those who are not, but over all you are all utterly doomed." Her gaze shifted to Dib then back to the half a class. "Today is your presidents test. I hope you all fail. If you do in fact fail, which I assure you you will, you will be sentenced to summer Skool and will not be doing anything fun for the entire doomedly hot summer." Mrs. Bitters seemed happy about this as her fingers folded together and then she began her doom rant for the remainder of the class period. "Doom for there is no air conditioning doom for you cannot open the windows doomed. Go to your next class and never return." She pointed at the door abruptly and the bell rang on her command. Immediately the class stood and moved on through the day.

Dib blinked, suddenly realizing that he would now never see Mrs. Bitters again, unless he had a kid of his own that was a student of Bitters and only then would he see her when he would come to the parent-teacher meeting once a year. The sudden knowledge of never seeing her again put a kick in Dibs step, now excited that he wouldn't have a teacher who always went on about how doomed everything and everyone was.

Lunch came almost too quickly, which was rare for a Skool day, however most of the teachers were fed up with their classes and merely let them mingle for the last day. One of them had even brought some cookies to celebrate their going away, Teacher only cookies of course but the students could look and be denied their request for one.

The Skool slop they were served was just as disgusting as it had been on the first day of the Skool year. Idly Dib wondered if it was the same meal too, just frozen until the last day so they could reminisce the moment. Dib slid down the line with his tray, another glop of moldy goo dumped on his tray before it was milk and juice time and then sitting at the regular table. As he sat down he picked up a spork to poke the goo with. It was probably just more budget cuts if anything, saving food over the course of the year.

Soon Gaz showed up and sat down with her tray of food, though she didn't care if it was good or not, one hand hurriedly button bashing while the other manipulated the spork. Dib gagged a little at the sight but returned to his own musings. Eyes raised in suspicion as out of no where, Zim sat down across from him. The tray clattering onto the table as Zim carelessly slammed it down, Once situated Zim rested his elbows on the table and folded his hands in front of his face, chin resting against the digits as he stared at Dib. Dib stared back, head raising to stare down at Zim just a little.

Dib blinked, noticing something off about the alien.

"So Zim... uh ever since you landed here you've been pretty short but uh... did you hit a growth spurt or something?" Dib eyed the alien, his torso did seem a bit longer, as well as Zims neck and arms, and though slightly longer as well the aliens limbs had thinned slightly with the growth.

Zim twitched, suddenly thrown off guard; he had been mulling over ways to get the Dib-stupid to somehow break or otherwise end their truce. A weird twist pulled in Zims spooch and the aliens face contorted into something that conveyed the weird emotion. Zim immediately set to a glare, the expression gone. "Why of course Dib-stink. Zim has been growing stronger everyday he resides on your dumb earth planet. Though Irk is much better for growing such great soldiers like Zim."

The alein sneered a bit though he did take a moment to notice the changes himself. First off Zim had a slightly higher vantage for looking down on the smaller earth-smeets, better glaring opportunities. And second Zim could feel it in his Irken bones, the stretching had been causing some mild discomfort, one that he had been blaming on the lack of ability to plan the Earths demise.

Zim eyed Dib for a moment, the human was however still taller than Zim. This the alien did not like one bit, however it would be dangerous and possibly damaging to his body if he were to up the pace of his growth, not to mention this whole process was probably illegal on Irk. If anyone knew about it anyways.

"Whatever Zim, jeez I can't even make conversation with out your ego eating everything up."

"Zim did not want to talk to you, worm-baby." Zim humphed and pushed about some of the indiscernible goo on his tray. The plastic spork beginning to melt a little at the contact with the so called 'food.' "Why would Zim suddenly be go luck happy for to talk with the Dib-stupid."

Dib stared at Zim, mouth dropping open to argue that they had a truce but he quickly reminded himself that Zim was Zim, no matter the arrangement. Plus the fact that Zim had some how messed up 'happy go lucky' in his wording. And it wasn't even that relevant a phrase to use in the first place! Settling for a roll of lensed eyes Dib resumed staring at his toxic goop of a lunch and poked at it until the lunch bell rang.

* * *

Woot! Top country hitting this story so far is the US followed by Turkey, Canada and Germany! Sorry this takes so long to update but I'm decently busy at work. Also trying to save up for a huge move this coming January (I like to think I plan ahead lol). But rest assured my heart is still goop for this story! Mutilated Gem is still busy so I have been editing these chapters best I can! ~ R&R Pretty Please!

-FN


	10. Testing!

Dib couldn't help but wearily bask in the feeling of impending doom. Left foot. Right foot. Then, suddenly, a pair of gym shorts and its matching shirt adorned his lanky pale body. The scabs and bruises from the previous days presidents test practice were stark against his pale skin. For whatever reason the winters brief snow and enduring rains seemed to suck the tan from his body, but it was of no real matter. Come summer time he would once again receive the suns kisses and a tan would blemish him instead. Dib sighed, now trying to think of the better things the MiddleSkool could have done to test its insufferable occupants. Maybe an actual test of brain matter would be better instead of this ridiculous course. They probably knew that no one would pass and forced them through this instead.

Double-knotting his shoe laces Dib stood and walked out. Smacky shoved him as he went by but the other boy was still getting changed and was busing himself with his looks, so further confrontation was avoided for now. Dib rolled his eyes and exited the locker rooms. Briefly wondering what looks could that gorilla of a child possibly fix up. And why would he do that whilst not wearing any pants? Dib shuddered, refusing to make eye contact with any of the males in the changing room.

Zim had finished changing first, as per usual and now stood near the exit doors, leaning against a grimy stained wall. Hairless and green and so very much alien Dib still couldn't understand how no one else could see through the terrible disguise. Sidling up to his now obedient enemy Dib sighed, a couple other students, friends obviously, trickling out together in one miniature swarm after another.

Though Dib was distracted by the other humans of his specie Zim was unaffected and made his displeasure at Dibs presence known. "Zim does not wish to speak with idiot humans." Zim huffed and continued staring at the floor between his shoes. "Especially the Dib-stupid with his giant head full of par-norman bull-honkey."

Dib ignored the obvious plea for Dib to evacuate the immediate space and filled it with his squeaky I-just-started-puberty voice. "So? Never stopped me from exposing you for what you truly are. Alien."

Zim merely rolled his eyes and sighed. "What does the Dib-stink want now." Zims wig twitched as he grinned, lekku desperately wanting to express how he felt not so deep down inside. "Are you ready to be utterly destroyed by Zims glorious capabilities in your earth dumb precidense test?"

Now it was Dibs turn to roll his eyes, the glasses magnifying the movement. "As if lizard. You're just better at it cause you're from outer space. Everyone can tell you're not normal when you show off."

Zim merely grinned proudly, taking it as a stroke to his gloriously massive ego. However the scientific portion of his brain kicked in. A loud grunt of thought in the form of a suspecting 'hmm.' interrupted the glory basking. "Of course, Zim cannot be so amazing that he stands out from all other life forms of this cursed ball of dirt. Zim is merely an average human stink-worm."

Dib ignored Zim best he could as the alien murmured to himself about sports and how humans were not as good at them as they should be. Instead Dib turned his attention to how worn his gym shoes had gotten over the last few months of Presidents test training.

A loud whistle interrupted Zims mutterings and Dibs musings. There, in all her butch-like glory stood their unforgiving gym teacher and physical trainer. A clipboard in grasp and a whistle held between chapped lips. Truly an ungodly sight to behold.

The whistle was dropped as the teacher yelled at the lot of them. Dib glanced around, wondering when exactly the rest of their class had walked out and joined them in the hallway. Not that he really cared, but usually his observation skills were better than this; he inwardly blamed it on Zim's rambling.

"Alright you worthless maggot children! Today is not only your last day of worthless Skooling, but also it is your gym test! If you do not pass the Presidents Test you will be held back from the rest of your worthless generation and forced to cope with the failures of the generation preceding you. Just like your parents did and their parents before them right up to your worthless line of snot parents formed kids. Got it?!"

Dib shuddered, sincerely hoping he would be able to make it. He knew he was made for head smart such things, not body tasks. Heck, even heavy boxes were too much of a match for him at the best of times. Their teacher grunted in an oddly pig-like fashion and then stormed outside, the double doors flipping behind her. And so the class followed their mentor and Dib trailed along behind, knowing that the course would suck almost literal balls to endure. The sun beat down the moment he exited and he squinted at the light. As his eyes began to adjust, and to his immense surprise, he found Zim walking along side him, squinting just as badly at the change of light intensity.

"Ugh this cursed sun. That's definitely the first thing that is going to go when I take over this pathetic rock." Zim rubbed at his eyes, the contacts beginning to dry at the sudden intense heat.

Dib glared at Zim and was about to defend all of Earth as he had sworn to four years ago, but the gym teacher was barking orders at them. They were stood out in the middle of the track again, Told to pair up and do stretches. Of course no one would pair up with Dib or Zim, so just like last time the two were made to help each other with their pointless arms and leg poses. However this time once completed they were made to wait. The teacher had a chart and told them about the qualifications they would need to pass in order to complete Middle Skool and pass the Presidents Test. In groups of ten they were made to compete, doing their weird lay down sit up motion until they couldn't go anymore. Dib nearly sighed in relief that he wasn't in the first group, however Zim was in his group like usual and that bothered him. Why were they always forced together? Their mutual hatred was nearly palpable! How did no one notice?

"Next!" Their lovely teacher bellowed. Dib grunted as he stood dusting dirt from his short shorts, he'd been sitting in the dead grass under one of their twiggy trees while waiting. Zim had been nearby, also under the same tiny tree, but he was forced to endure sharing the meager shade.

The ten students trudged over and laid down as told. Zim made a face as he was told to lay down on the Earths filthy surface. He imagined for a moment the world around him burning and how nice the sky would look red with fire. A whistle blew and they were made to sit up and lay back down repeatedly. This was easy of course for the alien, albeit still extremely confusing and pointless. Around the time he hit fifty three he glanced over to Dib. The sight nearly made him bust out laughing at the human.

Dib had been working as hard as his lanky body would allow, crunch, crunch, crunch. Breathe. He could feel the blood pounding in his face and the sweat beginning to bead as he put in effort. However at the sound of Zims choked snicker he figured he was tomato red in the face and puffing like a magic dragon. Zim couldn't help but grin as laughing was difficult when forced to perform this weird motion. The Dibs face was extremely red, so very red that Zim couldn't compare it to anything he'd ever seen before. Except maybe Tallest Reds armor.

A whistle blew and the teacher called on the next group of students. A few things were checked off on the list and she shooed the current group away. Dib rolled to his side and then stood, using a dusty sleeve to wipe the sweat from his face. Glasses being pushed up into his hair line and then removed as they had collected smudges from the greasy contact. The human grunted and trudged away, utterly hating the grueling course they had to complete The lenses were rubbed gently with the edge of his shirt, thinking idly that the cloth was too rough and would scratch them. There was a massive agility course that took up half of the inner track field, the first group had already run through it and were laying battered and bruised at the other end. Walking over to it with the rest of the group they were made to put on their own little timers, a set of panels would activate the start as they began and a set of panels at the end would make the timer stop and record their time.

Half the group immediately took off through the course. Zim however lingered behind with Dib as the human spent another few seconds recovering. Zim however passed the waiting off by buffing his ungloved claws on his shirt and then examining them. Stupid gym teacher wouldn't let him keep his gloves on, but it was either gloves or PAK and he obviously had picked his life-support.

Dib glared at Zim suspiciously but said nothing and instead saved his breath for the trial to come as he jogged between the panels and began the course they dinged and lit up, the timer dangling around his neck immediately starting to go off signalling the start for him. Zim glanced around briefly before heading off as well, leaving second to last in their group.

Relief only came as the panels at the end dinged and shone green. A couple students were not fast enough and it blared, shining an angry red. Dib however was one of the kids that made it. A small confetti cannon shot paper scraps into the air and a small T-shirt gun launched a diploma in his face.

The gym teacher was standing off to one side and glared at the entire group, it seemed that day by day her hatred for children only grew, despite the torture they were put to endure at her hand. "If you got that certificate then you're done! Get changed and go home! Skool is over. If you did not get that certificate then you failed! You must report to the underground detention center for the entirety of summer."

Zim brushed some confetti out of his wig and picked up his certificate. Unrolling it he found his score in one corner as well as his rank against all the other students: 15th. He wasn't the greatest and that made him angry, however he was surely placed above the Dib-human and that was good enough for now. Dib walked up next to him and tried to peer over the shorter shoulder to see what Zim had got. Zim, ever observant hunched his shoulders and hissed, glaring at him as he hurriedly rolled his paper up.

"What now Dib-worm? Trying to steal answers from Zim?" The alien's sneer was almost too familiar now.

"This isn't a test idiot. I just wanted to see what you got." Dib rolled his eyes and showed Zim his certificate. Zim merely grinned.

"Now Zim has your answers! Ahahahaa!"

Whilst the two bickered Torque and Smacky were bro bumping and whooping. Claiming their scores would make them instant first-pick varsity choices at Hi-Skool. The rest of the students, though girls mainly, giggled and congratulated the two boys.

As the excitement wore out the class began to disperse. Those who had not passed went crying back to the Skool for a summer long detention. Dib only went back for his back pack and regular clothes. No one else had seemed to remember the little detail of changing back into their regular clothes as they trotted off in their gym uniforms. Ah well, humanity at its finest.

"Stop following me." Dib glared at Zim, the alien having followed him to the locker rooms. They were the only two there, though there were heaps of clothes and messy lockers left forgotten by their classmates.

"Zim has merely left his uniform here. There is no need to think you are being followed Dib-stupid you are not worth the effort." Zim stuck his chin up snobbishly and picked up his invader uniform. He though about changing but glared at his shiny invader issue boots. Normally in the commotion of everyone changing he could do so quick as a flash, without the peering eyes of Dib trying to oust him. However now there were no distractions.  
Dib glared at him, having the same debate though much shorter and began toeing off his shoes, the knots having come undone at some point in the agility course. His mind running along the lines that if Dib would do it then Zim would too, the alien pulled off his dusty gym shirt. Dib glanced over, never missing a moment to study the stupid but also extremely fascinating extraterrestrial. Zim was green under the shirt go figure, but a lighter shade under the fabrics, perhaps the earth's sun had had a tanning effect on Zim too? Dib pulled off his shorts and stepped into his black jeans, relishing the feel of regular clothes, the only remaining discomfort that he was sweaty while his clothes were semi-clean still.

Zim however is changing slower than usual, a pained grunt coming from him as his uniform snags on his PAK. His arms are longer, his body longer, every bit of his clothes seemed to be shrinking day by day.

Dib glanced over at Zim again, then away as the alien was pulling his pants on, currently clad in a weirdly tight set of boxers. Though as his eyes returned again the pants seemed a bit small, having risen up his calf just a bit.

"What did you do? Wash your clothes wrong?" Dib chuckled and Zim shot him a glare.

"The Glorious Zim is merely having what you humans call a growth sprout and-"

"Growth spurt." The human interrupted, wondering for a second if Zim misspoke on purpose.

Zim rolled his eyes, "Yes yes, and has yet to receive fitting replacement clothings."

"Well that's cool, you are growing pretty fast. Watch out or you'll get growing pain, if that even happens to aliens." Dib grinned tauntingly.

Zim blinked, then resumed his glare, "What sort of pains are growing?"

"Well when you grow quickly your body hurts, just because its growing and stretching." Dib explained, now curious if such a thing would happen to an extraterrestrial being.

Zim stared at the floor, well that explained a lot. "Zim has no such pangs of growth sprouts! Zim is advanced beyond such simple human functions!"

Dib rolled his eyes and shrugged his backpack onto his shoulder. "Whatever then alien." He then left, boots clumping quietly as he walked away.

Zim twitched and then hurriedly dressed himself, ignoring the occasional twinge as he picked something up. If the stupid human was right then he would need to work on his PAK some more. Maybe he had sped the process up too much and now his body would betray him and be in pain forever? Zim glared at the gym uniform and left the dirty articles on the floor. Stupid human Skool.

The dull heat was beginning to fade as large fluffy white clouds spread across the otherwise clear blue sky. Dib sighed as he stepped down the steps of the Middle Skool for what he hoped was the last time. The doors opened behind him and the light tap of boots came behind him. Zim walked beside him grinning maniacally.

"Zim has decided that since he cannot destroy your pathetic earth this sun cycle he shall spend it destroying you." Zims grin widened, Dib hadn't mentioned that attacking the human was off-limit, so at least that was fair game. Plus if the Dib was dead then the truce would be null. INGENIOUS!

Dib merely shrugged, "Ok, well in about a week I'll be going to summer camp. So you'll either have to come with or 'destroy' me in a week."

Zim stopped walking for a moment, his glare seething. Well that definitely put a high quality Vortian wrench in his plans.

* * *

Honestly, this is a great story. Story to end all stories. - I tell my cup of rum -

Haha sorry for the slow updates! Also there haven't been any visitors this month -sadness- come back!

~FN


	11. Soaps!

The sun was beginning to dip from its height in the sky and a slight breeze had come up; it was probably the last one they would feel until summer would end several months from now. Zim was following Dib around, formulating plans to destroy his too-large head while they chatted. Dib was sweaty and gross looking but the diploma safely stored in his backpack meant he'd never have to go through that again.

"Why are you following me?" Dib squinted one eye at Zim suspiciously. The alien merely shrugged offering an 'eh' and an obscure hand twirl.

"Zim cannot plot to destroy until you end this agreement. So Zim has..." Another hand flick as if Zim was lazily reaching for the word he was searching for. "Decided to bother you until the Dib changes his huge mind."

Shrugging back Dib grinned, "Hah another dumb plan. You'll never win Zim, and my head is not big.." They had since reached Dibs house and the human paused at his door eying Zim. "You're gonna stay out here right?"

Zim glared at the house, the door, the Dib. Going into the enemy's territory without a plan? NO! He had said that he would annoy the human until he dismissed their truce and that's exactly what he would do. That was the plan.

Zim shrugged and huffed indignantly as a response but the moment the door opened he was following Dib inside. The human groaned in discomfort, sort of wishing he had been able to leave the alien outside and just barricade himself in his room. However no such luck as Zim strode in, head high and marching himself into the human living room. Zim immediately made himself at home by flopping onto the couch and staring at the TV.

Dib blinked watching the alien stare at the blank screen. "Computer! Turn on the telly-watchy!" Zim suddenly barked commands at the TV an arm flailing in the TVs direction making Dib chuckle.

"Its a regular TV you dolt." Dib picked up the remote from the coffee table and pushed the button to turn the screen on. Then he fiddled with the cable box and the news came to life on the screen. Zim blinked, observing the whole procedure. A condescending click uttered from the back of his throat. "Useless technology. Why is not everything command operated? You humans are far behind the advances of my base."

Dib rolled his eyes, "Whatever I'll be right back, don't touch anything." He set the remote on the arm of the couch and hurried upstairs, grabbing a change of clothes and then darting into the bathroom to shower away all the horrors of school.

 _'And recent developments have put Squiggles at the top of the cutest squirrel competition!'_

Zim stared in mild horror as images of squirrels nibbling at acorns and jumping about flashed by on the screen. Grabbing the remote he frantically mashed buttons until he managed to get it stuck on some obscure commercial show in Spanish. Zims translator already contained the information for the language and it's speech pattern was less grating on his antennae than the stupid show about squirrels.

Zim glanced around suspiciously and then pulled a small panel of technology out of his PAK. the screen lit up with life and symbols darted about its surface. He tapped at a few things and received a few visuals of his base, Gir was in the living room, glued to the couch by a mass of chocolate smoothie and cotton candy, all while watching the TV. Zim grumbled to himself about how he'd need to get that sanitized before he would ever touch it again.

Tapping at a few more buttons he got a view of Dibs room, though slightly messy was void of the Dib. Flipping through the cameras he stopped when he found the bathroom camera lens had fogged up. Zim glared at the screen but put the technology away and crossed his boots on the coffee table, getting comfortable as the TV spoke of some human named Julio and how he had stole away a female unit. An older lady was crying on screen in a dramatic way and then another man in pristine clothes claimed he would save her. Zim blinked not realizing he was watching a Spanish soap opera, however it was semi-interesting for the time being.

Dib hurriedly showered dried and dressed himself toweling his hair thoroughly before stepping out and heading back down stairs. Boots in hand he walked past Zim and set them by the door where two other pairs of shoes would be sitting if anyone else had bothered to come home. Dib blinked realizing that the TV was now somehow in Spanish and Zim was watching with mild interest.

The human walked over to stand behind the couch, leaning over he grinned, "So what're you watching?" Said loud enough to startle the average un-observant person. However Zim was Zim, and Zim merely clamped his hands over his wig, Dib figured to cover his antennae.

"Gah! Infuriating dirt-beast! Screaming into an invaders lekku will get you killed!" Zim rubbed his lekku through the wig, extra gentle on his left side as it was still damaged.

Dib merely laughed and jumped over the back of the couch, joining Zim in his weird taste of TV. "Why are you watching? shows in Spanish?"

"Zim can understand all of your pitiful Earth-ian languages. Spah-guish is no different to Zim than your eeenGlash."

Dib took the remote from the couch cushions and changed the channel anyways, flipping through to MTV where some random band was playing their hit song and the video looked ridiculous. He turned down the volume a little and sank into the couch, letting his mind try to interpret the reasoning as to why such a song had to be made.

A discontent grumble came from the invader and he snatched the remote back. "Filthy human, Zim was watching the Spah-guish. Arron needs to save the human female Esperanza from the Evil Julio." Dib blinked and laughed at the alien.

"You were actually into that? Thats a soap opera Zim." Dib couldn't stop the laughter that left his throat in sporadic little chuckles. He could almost see the antenna -lekku?- twitch under the wig as the characters on screen overreacted one way or another. The aliens eyes bugging wide and round on occasion.

Eyes that narrowed to a glare as Dib laughed at him. How dare he! Laugh at his future over lord?! Zim turned his glare to the human and hissed. "These shows have nothing to do with cleaning you filthy Earthanoid. Zim finds them almost as entertaining as planning for your ginormous head to explode."

Dib rolled his eyes at that. "My head is not big, I'm gonna grow into it before next skool year you know."

Zim raised a brow and laughed mockingly. "We'll see Dib-thing."

Keys jingled from the outside and made a distinct metallic noise as the correct one was found and shoved without care into its slot. Knob turning and door opening Dib looked over to welcome the person inside. Lensed eyes looked back with disinterest to the TV screen as he saw who it was. "Hey dad! I brought Zim over. Yanno, the alien?"

The Professor hurried his way in, shutting the door behind him. "Ah Tim was it? So good to see Dib playing with a friend. Well I'm off to the labs. Don't come down there, I need utmost concentration and care for my next super experiment. Super Cereal requires super care!" The Professor paused for a moment, as if thinking of making some product called 'super care' before he hurried down the hall into the bowels of the house.

Zim glanced at where the professor went, staring after him for a moment. "Did he not notice the computers I blew up? Heh. You humans are so unobservant its a wonder you've survived this long." The smugness of his voice intent on egging on the human for a little fight but it went ignored.

The human shrugged and then stretched his limbs, lengthening legs rising to place his socked feet on the coffee table. For the first time he noticed that Zims booted feet were on his coffee table. "Hey, get your boots off my table. Feet are fine but no shoes inside."

The Irken grumbled quietly in protest but removed his boots. Three toed feet returned to their position atop the coffee table and he wiggled his toes slightly, briefly exercising their freedom from the confines of his boots. However the peace only lasted for a moment before Gaz came thundering downstairs.

"Dib! Its MY turn to use the TV!" The purple haired monster child snatched the remote from the empty space between Dib and Zims seats and switched it to The Vampire Piggy Chronicles. The introductory music suddenly blaring guitar riffs. Zims lekku nearly flung his hair piece as they tried to stand up in a display of surprise. Dib groaned his misery but stood for such defeats. Zim stared for a moment before making a particularly disgusted face, the characters on screen were vastly different to the soap he had been forcing the Dib to watch with him.

"What is the meaning of this human?!"

Dib merely walked away, ignoring Zims outbursts. "Its whatever Zim, c'mon lets go look at stars or something. Or you could just go home and leave me alone?" He almost sounded hopeful at the last suggestion.

The Irken picked up on the tone and implications for Zim to leave the human alone. "Of course Dib-thing. Let us watch stars. Or we could discuss ending our terms of peace." Zim put his own little lilt of hope at the end, though it was much eviller sounding. Dib chuckled at that and grabbed his boots before heading up the stairs. Zim grabbing his own followed the human up through the window and onto the roof. Dib had the expertise of having done it a thousand times or more, and Zim had his PAK to carry him easily through the small space and to sit on the roofing beside the human.

It was well dark enough to see most of the stars and the sky had remained clear all through the day into the night. Dib stared at the sky, the sun having set a while ago there was only the faintest of glows against the horizions edge. Zim looked up once then at Dib.

"you find these explosions interesting human?"

"Yeah, I've always wanted to go to space yanno? Just explore." Dibs eyes gained depth to them, the intense golden amber coming to life as a dream of flying through the stars passed his minds eye. Dib chuckled and ran a hand through his hair, the largest of cowlicks returning to its scythe position atop his head. "But humans haven't advanced enough for that yet. We barely made it to the moon and back."

Zim eyed the stars again, "Gah, its nothing special." He scratched his left lekku through the wig, the itchy item catching on his still healing appendage. "There are many planets and to compare to this one, flying through it all is similar to your... ehh. Traffik?" Zims hand was waving a bit. "Its busy and no one knows how to direct their ships properly."

Dib blinked, having not at all expected the alien to offer such information.

"There's this one planet that if you fly too close, the disgusting glooshites will fly out and try to wash your dustshields." Zim shuddered, "Such germs they carry, and they smudged up the sight glass terribly. Scratches and slime crusting all over."

Dib grinned, so space was pretty normal in comparison to Earth. "So when that alien took you from class that one time they took you to some other planet huh?"

Zim stiffened, "Yes. Zim had to endure some... loyalty testing." Images of deep fryers and having to be swallowed whole by a disgustingly huge civilian in order to escape coming to mind. Banished to Foodcourtia.. Zim stopped the train of thought before it could continue. "But even greater were my trials of Devastis!"

Amber eyes glinted suspiciously as Zim immediately jumped topics but was intrigued by the planets the Irken continued to mention. "So there's a ton of planets with life on them then?"

Zim nodded. "Yes yes yes. Your pitiful planet is too far away to even squint at them properly. it takes... errr six months to travel to your nearest life planet neighbor." Zim again nodded to himself, "And that is by route of my cruiser, faster than most other ships in the universe."

Sighing Dib looked back up to the stars. "Hah humans are so far behind then." A pause came between them as a car alarm sounded a few blocks away. "So what is your home planet like?"

Zim, who had been enjoying the brief quiet stared up into the sky, eyes having drifted to the speck that was his home. He laid down on the slanted roof and pointed. "Irk is huge and amazing. It is the greatest planet." By Zims line of sight the tip of his glove rested just below the faint pink glimmer. However his longing turned to burning shame as he recalled his last visit to his home planet. He had destroyed a decent amount of the militia city, the fires and screams filed through his head before he stored them away.

Dib laid down as well and tried to follow Zims pointing, but the aliens eye sight was far superior and he was unable to pinpoint the precise spot. "Do you have plants or animals?"

Zim sighed, "No. That was all erased from my planet long ago. I hear rumors though that some of the higher-ups have what you would call 'pets' that were once native and cloned back into existence however Zim has seen none."

"Oh." Dib quieted again and stared at the sky, an asteroid fell along the horizon, burning up in the atmosphere till it was nothing but ashes raining down on the planet.

A gloved hand pointed to another bright speck in the sky. "That solar system is your closest shot for life forms."

Dib blinked and more eagerly sought out the star. Dib could see it was there, just next to a lesser known constellation. He had to squint but made a mental note to pull out his telescope for next time he had a night to himself. "What lives on it?"

"Eh, pointless creatures. They'll sell you trinkets you do not need, but if you made it there you could scavenge enough to build yourself a more efficient ship. Your kind would call it a 'yard of junkiness' planet."

"Junk yard?"

"Do not correct Zim." The pointing hand fisted and shook with Irken rage, but it didn't escalate to anything. Zim blinked, having suddenly realized that he and his nemesis were quite peacefully hanging out and chatting. He had completely forgotten about trying to void their truce.

"So Dib-monkey. You will be leaving to this 'camp for summer' yes?" The fist calmed and zim laced his fingers together across his belly, pulling at the just too small fabric down as it was exposing his skin slightly.

The human nodded brushing off the ever creative names the alien called him. "Yeah, and next summer they will pay me for going out there. I'll be a full-fledged counselor then, for now I'll be in training all summer."

An Irken curse was muttered and Zim turned his head to face Dib, a nasty glare coming with it. "Rotten human. You expect Zim, The Almighty Invader to just wait around for you to end this foul truce?"

Dib grinned, So that's what this whole hang out thing was about. "Yeah, I'll never end this truce; especially since you're going along with it." He chuckled. "Who knew you would keep your word and not destroy everything? Anwyays I'll be gone for two months, and you cant take over Earth or plan to destroy it either. Might just be an easy summer for me." Dib sighed wistfully.

Zim growled and pondered kicking the human off the side of the roof. A more logical side of him insisted that he needed to die in a battle for the planet. His mind was too dramatic but he knew it would be a legendary story to store in the Invader Archives. "Of course it wont be. I'll figure ways to destroy you from afar."

"Or you could come with so I can keep an eye on you. Just to make sure you keep to your word." Dib baited the alien.

The response was dry and unhumored. "I would rather fly through an asteroid field."

* * *

So sorry for my lack of updates but heres 2 new chapters to keep you going!

~FN


	12. Hi-Skool!

Lights were dimmed to their lowest setting, only the faint outlines of machinery and tools scattered about could be seen. Somewhere upstairs the TV was blaring loudly, whether anyone was watching he didn't know. But it was better than waiting in the insufferable silence. Days, weeks months had gone by without a sound, the only thing to interrupt his silence was GIR. However after the first few weeks had gone by the robot found other things to entertain itself. Namely anything that could be made sticky, gooey, made noise or was vaguely pig shaped.

Zim had spent many Earth days tinkering with his PAK, as he improved things he felt better, made fixing other defects easier. When he made things worse it was deafening. For every step of progress he made it seemed the odds of screwing things up would rise, taking him two or three steps back. But he had made several improvements to himself, now controlling the growth rate of his body to a slower pace, however he had yet to replace the chip that had melted itself so long ago. His mind knew it was dangerous to leave things be but it would be pure disgrace that such an item was destroyed beyond repair.

The mind filter. His Emotional Inhibitor. Everything that kept him at the perfect Irken Operating Standard as a pure-blooded and cold-hearted killing machine. The chip sat under a microscope at the other end of his work bench. It had been slightly repaired and Zim was able to re-route a few circuits of information, but he feared plugging it back in. At most it would be only partially effective, at worst it would hammer him with the guilt and emotions it had filtered out through his life before arriving to earth. The chip acted similar to a filter for a fish tank, while the information and emotions were blocked, the chip was a catch for all of those feelings. Plugging it in at such a level of damage, and his lesser level of chip design, could merely return the emotions to all of his memories. The Irken chose to leave things the way they were, the odds of it driving him mad seemed too high to risk it.

Zim grit his teeth, he would control his own emotions, such a need for the filter was obsolete when compared to his level of self-control. Stewing in his thoughts he commanded the PAK to detach, picking it off his body as his minds timer started. Only ten minutes before he would die. But that gave him plenty of time to tinker.

The PAK slid open at the light touch of gloved claws, a roll of instruments to the left side of the machinery. Picking one up he set about following and rerouting a few systems, in his mind it seemed that his PAK would run more efficiently if the programs were re-ordered and another fresh branch of battery life came from the heart of the PAK. Zim glared at the dull pink light that lived inside the PAK, beneath all the machinery, motherboard and all, lied a small pink and glowing orb. Encased in an opaque Vortian glass-gel with many wires reaching through the substance to absorb the energy it gave off.

It behaved similar to a self sustained fuel-source, and as well as every Irkens self destruct method.

Lekku twitched and stretched as he caught his mind wandering whilst moving circuitry. Hurriedly he double checked his work and finished up. Due to his last disastrous attempt at updating he realized he could plug the PAK into the computer for a quick diagnostic, a final check on his work before returning it to his body. A cord fed through a hole in the desk and Zim carefully plugged it in, using the valuable last three minutes to run a quick check on his life support. Charts and numbers flipped through the screen in front of him and a slight grin lifted a corner of his mouth, little off-white teeth shining cockily.

"Zim is amazing!" The victorious howl was the first noise the lab had heard in a while, but the computer didn't care to respond, currently busy cleaning cotton candy syrup from GIRs body. The PAK reattached in a swift movement and Zim sighed, a feeling of ease passing through him as his head cleared slightly. Everything was getting easier, slowly, bit by bit. Soon he wouldn't be labelled defective! The Tallest would just have to accept him as an Invader again! He just knew it! Grinning madly Zim strutted to the elevator and commanded to be returned to the surface level.

"Ugh, you wont like whats going on though." The computer moaned sadly and as Zim stepped out from the kitchen-toilet-elevator he glared at the slime that coated the floors and walls. Zim sighed, "Clean this, Computer!" The effort to yell was gone for a moment, and the alien stepped through the turmoil to the stairs. Ever since the summer had started Zims growth had made his old clothes un-wearable. Lack of contact from the Tallest meant they were busy, definitely not blocking him, but also that he had needed to either create his own clothes or go out and buy new ones. The only bonus was that he had grown a full three earth inches since his last measurement.

A combination of both had been the verdict, the computer hadn't wanted to make an entire wardrobe with their slowly dwindling supplies and pointed out that human clothes would help him blend in more. A few plain hoodies, human shirts and pants were to one side of his wardrobe, to the other was everything the computer made.

He changed quickly, knowing it was once again the beginning of the end. Being nude on Irk wasn't exactly frowned upon, but no one wanted to see tiny naked Irkens running about if they weren't smeets. Plus every Irken was constantly busy, it gave little to no time for such behavior.

A pair of tight black faded jeans, tucked into the closest set of boots he could find to his Invader issued ones. Buckles helped keep them tight to his body. Magenta covered his torso, a soft v-neck shirt in a shade he found to be exactly like his invaders tunic, covered by a simple black zippered hoodie. The computer had made the pants and hoodie, the clothing articles waterproof for when it rained, not that it would let him stand about in such acid exposure, but the items would give him a moment to run for cover.

Zim paused, an emotion coming over him that he was unsure of. Sadness? He looked down at his pants and shirt and boots. He had outgrown his tiny uniform. No doubt that if he asked for larger clothes the Tallests would mock him saying that he didn't need bigger clothes for his forever tiny body.

The feeling was forced back. No. They would request him back and admire his new height. Definitely. Zim pulled on a pair of black leather gloves, not the same quality that he had been issued, but the computer had tried its best. Even had a hole cut for his PAK to stick through the new hoodies and shirts.

Hesitation had left him and Zim strode confidently down the stairs to the front door, grabbing his wig and contacts. It was the first day of Hi-Skool. Which meant it was time to destroy Dib and all the rest of the humans after.

* * *

"Gaz! Why did you turn my alarms off!"

"Eh, I didn't want you to wake up."

The tapping of buttons at the front door and occasional glare from the same source angered Dib further. He looked haggard, glasses having been bent during his time at camp. He still had not managed to gain control of his scythe like cowlick, instead it seemed longer and was beginning to take a bolt shape towards the end. The signature trench-coat hung from his taller frame, having grown a decent amount but not yet filled into the added height. He hurried down the stairs in a flurry of motion, nearly falling as his socked foot slipped from one step to the next. Straightening his glasses he pulled his backpack on and stepped into his boots, they were getting tight but he figured they were fine for a while longer.

The two siblings hurried out the front door, Dib just barely grabbing a piece of super toast from the kitchen before the door was shut locked and left behind.

Dib hurried down the sidewalk after Gaz, though her hair hid her face and her focus seemed fully on the game console in her dexterous fingers she seemed to avoid all others on the way to Skool, even stopping at the two lights that were between.

It was mildly exciting and nerve wracking. New Skool, new people; Dib knew he wouldn't be joining any of those major cliques he saw around town. The jocks were with jocks and the nerds with nerds. Crunching on his toast and adjusting his backpack straps he prepared for the worst. Zim. Who knew how that freaky alien would ruin his Hi-Skool.

Green caught the corner of his eye, followed by a full body turn he sighed, the adrenaline that rush through him suddenly disappearing. Nah just some weird kid in buckle boots and a hoodie walking on the other side of the street. An uneasy feeling settled over him and he looked back over. The kid was much further ahead now, and wearing a PAK unit. Dib glared, so Zim had changed clothes? How did he grow so much?

Boots hurried along, but before Dib could catch up Zim had already walked onto the Hi-Skool grounds and was hurrying to the orientation room. Several female students were welcoming the new students and helping direct them to the gymnasium. Dib noted that these were probably the more nerdy females, though a preppy one was here and there, probably trying to boost her grades or something.

Dib parted from his sister as she met up with a fellow gamer and they began doing game stuff. Or something, Dib wasnt sure at all and didn't care to find out. Hurrying through the crowds of new and confused students and older ones who didn't give a rats ass about the lost freshmen. There!

Dib hurried around a group of female students and glared at Zim. The aliens entire wardrobe had changed, a weird human version stood before him. "Zim!"

The alien turned around looking shocked for a second. Immediately he stuffed the feeling away and sent his most scathing glare at Dib, a few students noticed the hate spark between them and watched the spectacle. "Dib-stupid." He spat out the name. "I see you're still alive then? The sun didn't burn you up like I had hoped it would."

Dib glared, the only thing the sun had done was give him a light tan. "That's obviously the stupidest plan Zim, it takes a lot more than the sun to kill me."

"Tch." Zim opened his mouth to respond but an adult came up. A man, wearing gloomy black clothing and seemed to seep utter hatred.

"I will have no fighting outside my classroom. Get to the Auditorium before I have you both thrown in detention." The teacher glared at the two through small round glasses and shooed them away with little hand gestures.

Zim sneered at the teacher and then turned to leave, not sparing the Dib human a glance as he clicked followed after and went with the flow of the crowd of wide eyed students. As much as Dib wanted to fight him, he was also curious what Zim had been up to for an entire two months. He kept down a chuckle, aside from changing his outfit. It was so strange to see him almost blending in for once. Wearing the same exact outfit every day for seven years definitely left an impression. That and the lack of nose and ears and having green skin.

The auditorium doors were propped open and Dib immediately felt uncomfortable. There were at least a hundred students already sat on the fold up bleachers. Zim stuck out like a sore thumb, being green, that and he sat as far away from the other attendees as he could. Boots thunked up the old wood platforms until he sat down right beside the green boy.

"What are you doing? Foul human." Zim hissed angrily but couldn't pursue an argument as the human at the front of the bleachers began to talk. Their voice seemed to boom through a set of speakers and Zim briefly felt a sense of repetition... Deja vu or something?

"Welcome Freshmen! You are the finest creations the local Skool system has produced! Good for you." The human seemed slightly displeased at all of them despite the congratulatory words.

* * *

Woot! I have no beta unfortunately but I am trying to up the quality as I go? If anyone wants to help out by beta-ing that would be spastic~ And I am still continuing this no worries. Just had a lapse of interest but I'm right back in it. Had to try and get my life going first lol

~FN


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